Seed Priming for Invigorating Late Sown Wheat (Triticum Aestivum)

The study was conducted to monitor the effect of various seed priming treatments on PBW 373, a late sown variety of wheat. The seed priming is a value addition technique that has direct effect on various physiological factors that ultimately influence the yield. Primed seeds emerge faster; grow more virorously and in some cases flower early, which is important in drought prone areas as well as in early and late sown crops. Different pre-sowing seed treatments viz. hydration for 16–18 h, low temperature hydration for 72 h at 10°C, hydration with 50 ppm GA₃ for 16–18 h and hydration (16–18 h) followed by thiram dressing @ 0.2% were applied on revalidated seed of late sown wheat cv PBW 373. Pre-sowing seed hydration for 16–18 h followed by thiram dressing @ 0.2% was found to be the best as it significantly invigorated seed quality in terms of improved per cent germination, speed of germination, per cent field emergence and reduced the days to 50% flowering and maturity. However, only hydration for 16–18 h also registered improvement in seed quality over control, viz. per cent germination, speed of germination, per cent field emergence and yield.