Abstract

In cultivation of medicinal trees, seed germination is a very important problem. Various seed enhancements are being adopted nowadays to improve seedling emergence. Among these seed enhancement, seed priming is an efficient method for increasing of seed vigour and improvement of germination and seedling growth. The laboratory experiment was conducted at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 2012. The present study was conducted to examine the effect of seed priming (3, 6, 9 and 12 h hydro priming) treatment along with control (without any treatment) on seedling quality characters of  bael (Aegle marmelos). The results showed that the effect of hydro priming was significant on seedling vigour, germination percentage and dry matter production. Mean comparison showed that minimum days to first emergence (12 days) and 50% germination (15 days) and the maximum germination (84%), shoot length (9.7 cm), root length (8.6 cm), dry matter production (303 mg), vigour index 1 (1537), vigour index 2 (722) and vigour index 3 (25452) were achieved by hydro priming of bael seeds for 6 h, but priming after 6 h failed to improve germination. Hence, bael seeds can be hydro primed for 6 h to improve the germiniability.

Key words:  Seed priming, germination percentage, seedling vigour and bael.