To Evaluate the Performance of Bread Wheat Genotypes as Affected by Seed Priming Duration

Seed priming has been found effective to affect seed dormancy and improve germination. During this experiment two wheat genotypes (TD-1 and Kiran-95) were evaluated against treatments based on 05 seed priming durations (P 1 =0 hr (control), P 2 =6 hrs, P 3 =9 hrs, P 4 =12 hrs and P 5 =18 hrs) in four replicated RCBD at Agronomy experimental fields, ARI Tandojam. The traits related to crop growth and yield regardless of genotypes were significantly affected by the seed priming durations; while treatment interaction was non-significant (P>0.05). TD-1 wheat genotype proved to be superior in grain yield and associated as well as in harvest index with maximum germination (69.05/m 2 ), grain yield 4300.10 kg/ha and 50.99% harvest index as compared to genotype Kiran-95 with66.82/m 2 germination, grain yield 3784.20 kg/ha and 41.16% harvest index. Seed priming impact showed that 12 hrs seed priming was more effective than other durations with 76.933/m 2 seed germination, 4654.40 kg/ha grain yield and 50.37% harvest index; while 18 hrs seed priming resulted in 69.82 m -2 seed germination, 4278.40 kg/ha grain yield and 46.08% harvest index. The crop sown under 9 or 6 hrs seed priming produced lower values for all the traits; while the control remained the least. It was concluded that seed priming practice has proved to be highly beneficial for all the traits studied including grain yield, and the seed soaked for 12 hrs showed better results with higher grain yield of 4654 kg ha -1 and 50.37% harvest index as compared to rest of seed priming durations and control; while increasing seed priming duration up to 18 hrs affected the crop traits adversely. In varieties, the dwarf variety TD-1 showed r higher grain yield of 4300.10 kg ha -1 than Kiran-95 (3705.30 kg ha -1 ).