The effect of seed priming in chickpea under sodic soil

Field experiments were conducted with four seed priming levels and two check pea varieties (BGD-72 and Shubhra) under sodic soil condition having pH more than 8.5 at the research farm of ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science, Mau during rabi 2015–16 and 2016–17. Observations on seed quality parameters were recorded during seedling stage and yield attributes and yield were recorded at maturity phase. Priming of seeds with KNO₃@ 0.2% for 06 h significantly enhanced the seed germination, seedling dry weight, vigor index-II, number of branches, pod number, 1000 grain weight and grain yield followed by GA₃@ 100ppm over hydro priming and unprimed control. Whereas GA₃@ 100ppm priming showed significant enhancement in seedling length, vigor-I and plant height over rest of the treatments applied. Among the varieties evaluated, BGD-72 showed its superiority in terms of germination, seedling length, vigor-I, pod number and grain yield whereas, Shubhra exhibited higher seedling dry weight, vigor-II, plant height and 1000 grain weight.