IMPACT OF SEED HYDRO PRIMING DURATION ON GERMINATIONAND SEEDLING PERFORMANCE OF OKRA (ABELMOSCHUSESCULENTUS L. VAR. PUNJAB SUHAWANI)Navneet Kaur, Ajay Gandhi, Dipika Mal and Satish Krushna GhardeAbstract An experiment was conducted at main Horticulture Research Farm, Lovely Professional UniversityPhagwara, Punjab during the period from February-May 2021 and 2022. To overcome the problem of seedgermination in okra, it can treated with water which are farmers friendly and cost effective. The objective ofthe experiment was to determine how long okra seeds should be hydroprimed in order to influencegermination percentage and seedling performance in okra. There were eight treatments in which one isunprimed and other seven are primed with distilled water for different durations [T1, 2 hours hydroprimedseeds; T2, seeds hydroprimed for 4 hours; T3, seeds hydroprimed for 6 hours; T4, seeds hydroprimed for 8hours; T5, seeds primed for 10 hours; T6, seeds primed for 12 hours; T7, seeds primed for 14 hours]. Theexperiment was laid downin a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Dataof various parameter likes germination percentage (%) and seedling parameters were recorded to find outthe suitable duration of seed hydropriming in okra. Result of the study showed that hydropriming durationof 12 hours recorded maximum seed germination percentage (83.33%), minimum days for germination(7.17), length of shoot (16.56 cm), length of root (8.64 cm), seedling length (25.20 cm), seedling dry weight(25.26 mg), seed vigour index-I (1823.89) and seed vigour index-II (2105.35) as compared to other hydropriming durations. It was concluded that 12 hours of hydropriming duration had positive effect ongermination and seedling growth parameters of okra. |