Effect of seed treatment on seedling growth and survival under net house condition in papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Baby

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out during the year 2023-24 at Central Nursery Scheme, Vasantrao Naik Marathawada Krishi Vidyapeeth Parbhani Maharashtra. The experiment was seed treatment of different organics and plant growth regulators on papaya to study effect on germination and survival. The results revealed that, application of GA3 @ 250 ppm shows best performance in growth parameters such as shoot height (13.16 cm, 22.53 cm and 31.77 cm), number of leaves (5.63, 9.23 and 13.80), stem diameter (3.37 mm, 4.44 mm and 5.86 mm) at 30, 45 and 60 DAS respectively. The leaf area (159.73 cm2), chlorophyll content (60.72 SPAD unit), fresh weight (15.26 g), dry weight of sapling (1.80 g), seed vigour index-I (2912.25), and seed vigour index-II (165.06) at 60 DAS were also observed best under this treatment. While lowest Incidence of damping off (3.60%) and mortality percentage (3.60) and highest survival percentage (96.39) were observed in seed soaking in cow urine (10%) for 12 hr + Azotobacter @ 0.2 ml/10 g treatment.