Effect of Different Seed Priming Treatments on Germination, Growth, Biochemical Changes and Yield of Wheat Varieties under Sodic Soil

Experiments were conductedduring rabi season of 2012 and 2013 to study the effect of seed priming on germination, growth, biochemical changes and yield of tolerant KRL 210and susceptible HD 2733 varieties under sodic soil at the research farm of Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture & Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad (U. P. ). Seed priming was done by soaking the seeds for 12 hours in distilled water, KNO3 (3 %), KCl (1 %), GA3 (150 ppm) and cycocel 500 ppm. Application of primers brought a considerable increase in germination and growth parameters like plant height, tiller numbers and plant dry weight. The biochemical parameters viz. , total chlorophyll content and starch content showed a significant increase due to seed priming. Seed priming also significantly enhanced the ear bearing tiller plant-1, number of grain ear-1 andgrain yield plant-1. Among different treatments, KNO3 (3 %) was found superior among all the priming treatments and significantly higher than rest of the treatments.