Influence of growing media and seed treatment on seed germination and seedling vigour of Sarpagandha (Rauvolfia serpentina (L), Benth. ex Kurz)

Abstract

A nursery experiment was carried out to study the effect of growing media, seed treatments on seed germination and seedling vigour of Sarpagandha. The experiment was conducted in a Factorial Completely Randomized Design with 18 treatment combinations and 3 replications. The treatment combinations consists of 2 types of growing media (M1: Garden soil + FYM + Sand @2:1:1 and M2: Coco peat + Vermiculite + Perlite @2:1:1) and 9 seed treatments (C1: GA3 50 ppm, C2: GA3 100 ppm, C3: GA3 150 ppm, C4: NaCl 1%, C5: NaCl 2%, C6: Acid scarification by conc. sulphuric acid, C7:Hot water treatment, C8: Pre soaking in tap water, C9: Control(without treatment). The results revealed that the seed germination and seedling vigour of Sarpagandha was significantly influenced by different growing media and seed treatments. Sarpagandha seeds, treated with GA3 @ 150 ppm and sown in garden soil + FYM + sand @2:1:1 resulted in minimum days taken for initiation of germination (13.33), minimum days taken for completion of germination (53.00), maximum germination percentage (39.00%), maximum speed of germination (1.88) and maximum vigour index (1,153.60).