Back to Contents

FREE FULL TEXT PDF

RESPONSE OF MAIZE CULTIVARS TO VARIOUS PRIMING SOURCES

Jehan Bakht^1*, Mohammad Shafi², Rahmat shah², raziuddin³ AND Iqbal munir¹ 

Abstract: Experiments were conducted to study the effect of seed priming on germination and yield of different maize varieties at the Department of Agronomy and Malakandher Research Farms KPK Agricultural University, Peshawar Pakistan. Seeds of four maize varieties viz., Azam, Sarhad white, Pahari and Sarhad yellow were primed with 5 different priming sources i.e. Polyethylene glycol (PEG), Potassium nitrate (KNO₃), Sodium thiosulphate (Na₂S₂O₃) and Water (H₂O) for 17 hours. Various priming sources and maize varieties had a significant (p<0.05) effect on days to emergence, emergence m^-2, 50% tasseling, 50% silking, maturity, growing degree days and grain yield. Seed germination and emergence occurred 2 days (48-51 h) earlier in primed seeds than unprimed. Azam germinated and emerged earlier than the rest of the varieties. Maximum germination (99%) and emergence (6 m^-2) were recorded in seeds primed with PEG compared with other treatments_. Among varieties, Azam gave maximum germination (99%) and emergence (6.5 m^-2). Maximum seedling dry weight (0.61 g) was observed in seeds primed with Na₂S₂O₃ Minimum days to tasseling (54), silking (61) and maturity (98) were observed in seeds primed with water or KNO₃. Among varieties, maximum days to tasseling (59), silking (65) and maturity (99) were recorded in Sarhad yellow. Maximum grain yield (3498 kg ha^-1) was recorded in Na₂S₂O₃.  Similarly, grain yield was more (3666 kg ha^-1) in Sarhad yellow compared with other varieties.

^1*Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, KPK Agricultural University Peshawar

²Department of Agronomy, KPK Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan

³Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, KPK Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan