EFFECT OF DIFFERENT SEED PRIMING TREATMENTS ON GERMINATION OF OKRA [ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS (L.) MOENCH]

An experiment was conducted at farm of School of agriculture in Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, (India) during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 in kharif season. Seeds were collected from the Punjab Agricultural University (Ludhiana). The variety used for this research trial was Punjab- Suhawani. The experiment was laid down in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. The eight treatments comprise T0-Control (un-primed seeds), T1- hydro-priming, T2- osmo-priming with 5% polyethylene glycol (PEG), T3- osmo-priming with 3% KCl, T4-Halo-priming with 5% KNO3, T5- Halo-priming with 1.5% Mg (NO3)2, T6- Hormonal-priming with 50 ppm GA3, T7- Hormonal-priming with 50 ppm of NAA. The seeds were soaked for 24 hrs with each solution. Significant variations observed by priming treatments in okra seeds were germination percentage (92.17%), number of days to germination (5.17 days), shoot length (16.43 cm), root length (8.81 cm), seedling length (25.09 cm), seedling vigor index (i) (2262.14) and seedling vigor index (ii) (2729.15). Significantly best result was recorded in T2-Osmo-priming with 5% polyethylene glycol (PEG) followed by T1-Hydropriming and T5- Halo-priming with 1.5% Mg (NO3)2 for 24hrs soaking. Whereas, unprimed control seeds showed the least results.