Effect of storage temperature and sarcotesta on seeds of papaya (Carica papaya L.) to sustain the viability, germination and seedling growth

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of storage temperature and sarcotesta on seeds of papaya to sustain the viability, germination and seedling growth. The experiment was carried out at College of Horticulture, Junagadh Agriculture University in Junagadh district of Gujarat during 2019. The experiment was laid out in Factorial completely randomized design with ten different treatment combinations viz., T1 (-4 ℃ with sarcotesta), T2 (0 ℃ with sarcotesta), T3 (4 ℃ with sarcotesta), T4 (8 ℃ with sarcotesta), T5 (Room temperature with sarcotesta), T6 (-4 ℃ without sarcotesta), T7 (0 ℃ without sarcotesta), T8 (4 ℃ without sarcotesta), T9 (8 ℃ without sarcotesta) and T10 (Room temperature without sarcotesta). The results revealed that, T10 (Room temperature without sarcotesta) showed highest germination percentage (61.00), seed vigor index length and mass (2443.78 and 76.07), shoot length (13.50), root length (26.53), seedling length (40.03), number of leaves (8.73), fresh weight (2.50) and dry weight (1.25) over all other treatments after the storage period of 1 month. T1 (-4 ℃ with sarcotesta) exhibits highest seed viability percentage (78.22) over all other treatments after the storage period of 1 month. The seed and seedling growth parameters decrease as the storage period increases.