Biopriming with indigenous microbial consortia enhances seed germination in Ximenia americana L.

Abstract

Dormancy, hard seed covers, and resistance to other abiotic stresses commonly result to poor and irregular germination of the wild plant species, which greatly hampers the ability to propagate, conserve, and utilize such species. One such species is Ximenia Americana L. which is an important multipurpose medicinal shrub, but with low natural germination, limiting mass cultivation and conservatory. The objective of the current research was to determine the impact of indigenous liquid compatible microbial consortia as a province-friendly method of biopriming seeds to improve seed germination and early seedling development of X. Americana. Bio primed seeds with various level of native microbial consortia and germination percentage, germination rate index (GRI), mean germination time (MGT), speed of germination, mean daily germination (MDG), peak value of germination (PVG) and germination value (GV) were evaluated. The findings indicated that there was a lot of variation in treatments where the 1:80 dilution (T8) performed consistently better out of the treatments and the untreated. The highest germination percentage was obtained in treatment T8 (83.33), GRI (63.78), and speed of germination (0.64 day -1), MDG (0.33), PVG (0.47), and GV (0.16), and minimum mean germination time was obtained (T8) (4.59 days). On the contrary, the control had the worst performance in all the parameters. It is possible that the higher dilution levels achieved a maximum level of microbial population, increased seed hydration, successfully reduced imbibition time, enzymatic activity, and an interaction effect among the microbial strains that was synergistic in nature that led to the superior performance at higher dilution levels. It is also possible that at the lack of dilution, undiluted consortia had an antagonistic effect. This research paper illustrates that indigenous microbial consortia biopriming, especially when used at an optimum dilution, is a good, environmentally friendly and sustainable solution to circumvent germination limitation of Ximenia Americana. Such a method has got a great potential in enhancing propagation efficiency, conservation programs and enabling the domestication of this desirable wild species and a sustainable use to enhance the exploitation.