Effect of physical seed pretreatments on morphology and yield of Ocimum basilicum L.

Abstract

The effect of physical seed pretreatments on morphology and yield of Ocimum basilicum L. was investigated in the study. The seeds were treated in different physical treatments viz., scarification using sand paper, overnight water soaking, 65 oC hot water for 10 min and concentrated H2SO4 for 1 min. Seeds after pretreatments were sown in protrays to study their effect on seedling parameters. After 30 days, seedlings were transplanted to growbags to study their effect on plant morphology and yield. All the treatments except concentrated sulphuric acid recorded on par germination with untreated seeds, which exhibited the highest germination of 58.67 per cent. The seeds exposed to water soaked seeds exhibited highest (18.27) seedling vigour index. At harvest stage, the morphological parameters and yield parameters did not exhibit any significant difference among the pretreatments tried. Hence it is observed that the physical seed pretreatments tried did not have any significant effect on morphological and yield parameters in O. basilicum.