Germination and Early Seedling Growth of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L) as Affected by Seed priming and Coating

Abstract

A laboratory experiment was conducted at Bahir Dar seed laboratory in 2014 to evaluate the effects of seed priming and coating on germination and early seedling growth of bread wheat (Var., Tay). Water and fermented cow urine were used as priming materials whereas Dynamic, Disco and Genius coat were used as coating materials. Treatments consisted of untreated seeds (T₁), water primed seeds (T₂),  cow urine primed seeds(T₃), Dynamic coated seeds (T₄), water primed + Dynamic coated seeds (T₅),  cow urine primed + Dynamic coated seeds (T₆), Dynamic + Disco coated seeds (T₇),  water primed + Dynamic + Disco coated seeds (T₈),  cow urine primed + Dynamic + Disco coated seeds (T₉), Dynamic + Disco + Genius coat coated seeds(T₁₀); water primed + Dynamic + Disco + Genius coat coated seeds (T₁₁) and cow urine primed + Dynamic + Disco + Genius coat coated seeds (T₁₂) were tested using completely randomized design  with four replications. Physiological quality data like germination percentage, speed of germination, root length, shoot length, vigor index were taken. Analysis of variance for all parameters was computed with SAS version 9.0 and mean separation was done using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at 1 and 5% probability level. The study revealed that germination percentage, speed of germination, vigor index of bread wheat were significantly (p<0.01) affected by seed priming and coating treatments. From this experiment, higher germination percentage (93.75%) and speed of germination (34.27) was recorded by primed seeds with water. However, the root length (23.38 cm), shoot length (19.53 cm) and vigor index (3852.5) of bread wheat was higher for seeds coated with Dynamic + Disco.

Keywords: Seed priming, Seed coating, Vigor index, Dynamic, Disco, Genius coat