1Dept. of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221005, India
2Dept. of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh-221005 India
*Corresponding author: rahapriyankar@gmail.com (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1061-3324)
Online published on 1 August, 2019.
A laboratory experiment was performed to examine the effect of nano-TiO2 polymorphs priming on seed germination and seedling growth of french bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Nano-TiO2 polymorphs i.e. anatase and rutile, were synthesized by the sol-gel method using titanium tetraisopropoxide as Ti precursor and 2-propanol as solvent. Seeds of french bean were treated with nine different concentrations (in water) of each nano-TiO2 polymorphs (0, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00 and 2.50%) by soaking in different concentrations suspension (prepared by ultrasonication method) for 24 hours. At the end of the experiment, the percentage of seed germination, seed germination index, seedling vigour index, root length, shoot length, number of lateral roots, seedling fresh weight, seedling dry weight were evaluated at 15 days following paper towel method. The results showed that increase in concentration of each nano-TiO2 polymorphs caused a significant increase in each study parameters. The best concentration of nano-TiO2 polymorphs was 2.50%. The findings illustrated the beneficial effect of nano-TiO2 polymorphs priming on seed germination and plant growth of french bean.
Nano-TiO2 polymorphs improved seed germination and seedling growth of french bean.
Performance of smaller polymorph, anatase (14 nm) was higher than rutile (52 nm).
Nano-TiO2 polymorph, sol-gel, french bean
