Effect of soaking periods and concentrations of priming agents in improving field emergence and fruit yield in bottle gourd

Abstract

In the present investigation an attempt has been made to study the effects of soaking periods and concentrations of priming agents on field emergence and fruit yield of bottle gourd. Disodium hydrogen phosphate (Na2HPO4), potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4), polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG), gibberellic acid (GA3) were used in two different concentrations with 24 and 48 hours of soaking period and hydro priming was done with 24 and 48 hours of soaking period. One year old seeds were treated with these priming agents. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences among the treatments in respect of field emergence. With the increase in soaking period from 24 hours to 48 hours average field emergence increased by 13.25 %, 7.0 %, 5.75%, 0.25 % and 3.0 % in case of Na2HPO4, KH2PO4, GA3, PEG-6000 and hydro priming. Effect of soaking period on speed of germination indicated that 48 hours of soaking period had better effect as compared to 24 hours of soaking period. PEG-6000 at lower concentration (0.5 MPa) with 48 hours of soaking period recorded significantly the highest fruit yield (161.19 q/ha).