Study on the effect of seed priming on Physiological and Biochemical changes in seed quality of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.)

Seed priming (pre-sowing imbibition treatment) is widely used to enhance seed performance with respect to rate and uniformity of germination. It is a low cost and low risk intervention, used to overcome poor plant stand establishment. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effect of priming on seed quality parameters of spinach. The experiment was laid down in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. The seeds were exposed to different priming agents which include 11 treatments primed for 24 hours with seed to solution 1:2 vol/vol ratio. The results showed KNO3 (1%) to be the best priming treatment to get the maximum seed quality parameters (viz., field emergence (%), germination (%), speed of germination, root length (cm), shoot length (cm), seedling dry weight (mg), seedling vigour index, germination rate index, peak value of germination, mean germination time, electrical conductivity (dSm⁻¹), dehydrogenase activity (OD Value) and alpha amylase activity (mm)) compared to other treatments and control, where field emergence and germination showed 11 and 10 per cent increase respectively, over control.