Maintenance of seed quality by seed treatment and packing materials during storage in onion (Allium cepa L.)

Abstract

The storability experiment was conducted on onion seed cv. N-53 in the Laboratory of Department of Seed Science & Technology, at KRC College of Horticultural College Arabhavi. Freshly harvested seeds were stored for a period of 10 months under ambient condition to study the effect of seed treatment chemicals and containers on seed quality of stored onion seeds. Seeds were treated with captan (2g/kg), thiram (2g/ kg), Trichoderma viride (4g/ kg) andPseudomonas fluorescens (5g/ kg) and packed in two containers viz.., Polythene bag (700 gauge) and cloth bag and stored under ambient condition. The results revealed that among the seed treatments the seeds were treated with captan (2g/kg) recorded significantly higher germination percentage (72.20%), seedling length (12.70 cm), seedling dry weight (28.10 mg) and vigour index (920) at the end of 10 months of storage. Between the storage containers, seeds packed in 700 gauge polythene bag recorded significantly the highest germination percentage (67.44%), seedling length (12.40 cm), seedling dry weight (28.42mg) and vigour index (845) compared to cloth bag at the end of 10 months of storage. The interaction effects showed no significant effects in these quality parameters.