Improving the yield and yield attributes in wheat crop using seed priming under drought stress

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the Seed priming Laboratory, Department of Plant Physiology and poly-house of Dept. of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, for two consecutive years to analyse the responses of two wheat varieties namely HUW-468 and HUW-510 under control and drought stress conditions using hydro, Mg (NO3)2, ZnSO4 and combination of Mg (NO3)2 and ZnSO4 primed seeds. On the basis of various parameters regarding yield and yield attributes of wheat crop. Parameters related to yield and yield attributes, viz., number of the spike length, spike number plant-1, spike weight, spikelet number spike-1, seed number spike-1, number of productive tillers plant-1, biological yield plant-1, grain yield plant-1 (g) and test weight (g) were found to be higher in combined primed seed set, and Mg(NO3)2, followed by ZnSO4 treated sets in respect to others in drought and control conditions and used verities of wheat. Therefore, from the data of yield and yield attributes parameters, it can be assumed that seed priming improves the seed yield by improving earlier reproductive growth and more allocation of assimilates toward the developing grains. Through these parameters it can be concluded that seed priming improves the yield of important agriculture crops by improving yield and yield attributes.