Influence of bio-priming on seed quality and yield in berseem
Keywords:
Berseem clover, Bio-priming, Phosphate solubilising bacteria, Pseudomonas, Seed quality, Seed yieldAbstract
An experiment was conducted in berseem with nine treatments and three replications viz., T1 (Control), T2 (Hydro-priming), T3 (Rhizobium), T4 (Phosphate solubilising bacteria), T5 (Endophyte), T6 (Azotobacter), T7 (Enterobacter), T8 (Rhizobium + Phosphate solubilising bacteria), T9 (Phosphate solubilising bacteria + Azotobacter) to record its seedling vigour and crop establishment in combination with microbial inoculants. Seeds were soaked in water (hydro-priming) and microbial solution (bio-priming) for 12 hours. The results revealed that bio-priming of berseem seeds significantly impacted seed yield and quality. Seed bio-priming with Azotobacter at 2 g/kg of seeds for 12 hours recorded significantly higher values for germination percentage (97.00%), shoot length (6.02 cm) and seedling vigour index (987) when tested for initial seed quality parameters before sowing. Whereas seed bio-priming with phosphate solubilising bacteria at 2 g/kg of seeds for 12 hours (T4) had significantly increased plant growth traits such as plant height (87.23 cm), branches per plant (52.33), leaf-to-stem ratio (0.74 g), green biomass at 60 DAS (232.62 g) and same treatment (T4) also recorded maximum values for seed yield contributing traits like number of heads (4.70), number of seeds (50.20), 1000-seed weight (3.05 g), seed yield per plant (0.67 g), net plot yield (0.15 kg) and seed yield per ha (193.11 kg). The change in seed yield/ plot over control was 66.67% during Rabi season at Dharwad.