Influence of priming on seed quality of fresh and old seed lots of carrot (Daucus carota L.)

Abstract

An attempt was made to study the influence of priming on seed quality in fresh and old seed lots of carrot. This experiment consisted of 14 priming treatments and seeds were primed for 24 hours. Fresh seed lot recorded significantly higher germination (77.00 %), SVI (1257), dehydrogenase enzyme activity (0.555 OD value) and alpha amylase activity (23.23 mm) as compared to old seed lot (70.66%, 1089, 0.337 OD value and 19.50 mm, respectively). However, effects of seed priming were more pronounced in old seed lot compared to fresh seed lot. Carrot seeds in both fresh and old lots primed with panchagavya (5 %) showed highest germination (93.00 % and 87.75 %, respectively), SVI (1584 and 1422, respectively), dehydrogenase enzyme activity (0.617 OD value and 0.512 OD value, respectively) and alpha amylase activity (29.05 mm and 25.08 mm, respectively) whereas, seeds primed with GA3 (100 ppm) showed highest root (8.33 cm and 8.12 cm, respectively) and shoot length (8.72 cm and 8.12 cm, respectively) as compared to control. However, there was no germination in cinnamon (10 % and 15 %, respectively) primed seeds in both the lots and they had less enzymatic activity.