Effect of Pre-Soaking Chemical Treatments on Seed Germination and Seedling Vigour of Papaya (Carica papaya L.) C.V. Red Lady under Net House Condition

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of pre-soaking chemical treatments on seedgermination and seedling vigour of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady under net house atResearch Farm of Centre of Excellence on Protected Cultivation and Precision Farming, College of Agriculture, IGKV, Raipur during the year 2019-2020. The experiment was laid out in aCompletely Randomized Design having nine treatments replicated three times. The treatmentcomprises different concentrations of Gibberellic Acid (GA₃), Potassium Nitrate, BenzylAdenine,Thiourea and water (control). Result of experiment revealed that pre-soaking ofpapaya seeds with T₂(GA₃ @ 200 ppm) had significant effect on seed germination and took minimum number of days for germination (15.13 days). Rate of seedling emergence (80.66%),germination percentage (82.32%), germination index (2.29), root: shoot ratio on dry weight basis (0.26) and seedling vigour index-II (202.23) were also recorded maximum under the sametreatment. Seedling vigour index-I (1425.40) was significantly influenced and recordedmaximum under the treatment T7 (Thiourea @ 1000 ppm) as compared to rest of the treatmentunder the present trial.