Standardisation of polymer coating in maize for maintenance of seed quality during storage

Abstract

An experiment was laid out in Completely Randomised Design with three replications and twelve treatments. The polymer coated maize seeds and one untreated lot were stored in cloth bags, while another untreated lot was stored in polythene bag (700 gauge). All the treatments were stored under ambient conditions for six months from November 2016 to April 2017. Monthly observations on seed quality parameters were recorded. After 6 months of storage, seeds treated with Little’s Polykote RedTM @ 3 ml/kg recorded lowest seed moisture content (10.62 %) with maximum germination (93.00%), shoot length (19.31 cm), root length (16.17 cm), seedling dry weight (0.61 g), seed vigor index-I (3299.64), seed vigor index-II (56.73), field emergence (92.00%), total dehydrogenase activity (0.67), total soluble protein content (9.56%) and lowest infection (1.00%) of seed borne pathogen. From the present investigation, it can be concluded that maize seeds coated with Little’s Polykote RedTM @ 3 ml/kg seed can be used to maintain significantly high germination and other seed quality parameters during storage in cloth bags, in comparison with the untreated seed stored either in cloth bag or polythene bags.