Influence of seed invigoration treatments on germination and vigor of chickpea

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of invigoration treatments on seed germination, seedling growth and vigor of aged seed of chickpea, by subjecting one year old seed of chickpea to various invigoration treatments viz., hydration, hydration followed by seed treatment with thiram, seed treatment with 50 ppm GA3, 2% KH2PO4, 2% CaCl2 and 2% KNO3 for 8 hours and osmo-conditioning with -0.5 MPa PEG for 6 hours followed by shade drying to 9% moisture content. The invigorated aged seed along with untreated aged seed and fresh seed (check) was tested for germination and seedling quality. Among the invigoration treatments, seed treated with CaCl2 and osmo-conditioning with PEG showed significantly higher germination and other seed quality traits over untreated aged seed. The germination and seedling vigor index in CaCl2 treated seed were significantly higher than that in fresh seed also.