Seed hardening for field crops – A review

Quality seeds along with other improved package of practices play a vital role in improving productivity of crops under rainfed condition, Seed hardening isa practice adopted to make crop plants resistant to soil moisture stress, NaCl, Na₂SO₄, KCl, MgSO₄, KH₂PO₄, K₂SO₄, CaCl₂, Na₂HPO₄, nitric acid, succinic acid, auxins, CCC, Jalshakthi, triazoles, cow's urine and cow dung extract are used as seed hardening chemicals. Hardening of seedling resulting from pre-sowing treatment is due to a number of physico-chemical changes within the cytoplasm. Pre-sowing seed hardening with different chemicals improve seed viability as well as vigour, root length, root shoot ratio and yield of rainfed crops. Research carried out on seed hardening is reviewed in this paper.