Effect of seed priming on seedling growth in China aster cv. Kamini

Abstract

A study was performed to determine the effect of seed priming treatment with different chemicals on seedling growth habit of China aster (Callistephus chinensis L. Nees). The experiment was conducted at Horticulture Research Farm, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.) in 2017-18. The experiment comprises of 8 treatments viz. Control, distilled water, 3 levels of GA3 (100 ppm, 150 ppm and 200 ppm) and 3 levels of CaCl2 (0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%) and laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three levels of replications. Seeds primed with GA3 200 ppm showed best performance in all the growth characters i.e. Shoot length, root length, leaf length, leaf width, fresh and dry weight of seedlings over all the treatments. Control (unprimed) seeds failed to exert any significant effect on seedling parameters in China aster cv. Kamini. Thus, priming with GA3 200 ppm could be used as an effective method to enhance seedling growth in China aster (Callistephus chinensis L. Nees) cv. Kamini.