Alleviation and separation of osmotic and ionic effect during germination and early seedling growth in pearl millet by presoaking the seeds with growth regulators

Investigations were carried out on Pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum L.) Var. Bj-104 in petri dishes. Water stress was simulated with PEG-6000 and salt stress was created with NaCl at iso-osmotic level of-4,-8 and-12 bars. At equivalent level of stress, NaCl proved to be more inhibitory for germination but seedling growth was inhibited more by PEG indeced osmotic stress. Deleterious effect of salt stress was parti.iliy alleviafed with presoaking seed treatment with phosphon-D (50 ppm) by enhancing coleoptile length. However, treatment with GA₃ (10 ppm) resulted in alleviation of osmotic stress to a greater extent during germination and early seedling growth by enhancing radicle length.