Effect of Seed Priming as Pre-Treatment Factors on Germination and Seedling Vigour of Tomato

This study investigated the germination and seedling vigour of tomato seeds cultivar BCT-25 under different priming treatments with the objective of enhancing the crop establishment under field conditions. We primed seeds with Moringa leaf extract for 18 hours; 1% NaCl for 36 hours; 10% Polyethylene glycol (PEG) for 12 hours; 100 ppm GA3, 5% KNO3 (under dark condition) and 1000 ppm Thiourea for 24 hours; distilled water for 12 hours; 2% KH2PO4 and 93 ppm NAA (at 4°C) for 6 hours and the control (T0). All the treatments improved the seed germination and seedling vigour; however, we found the highest vigour from hydro priming followed by KH2PO4 in both years in contrast with the minimum vigour index from T0. The highest mean germination percentage was found with hydro priming (T7) followed by T8, T1, T2, T3 during both years, while the lowest average germination percentage was recorded for T0. The highest magnitude of seedling emergence under field conditions was recorded with hydro priming, i.e., 89.67% in first and 86.67% in second year followed by T8, T1, T2 while it was lowest for T0 under laboratory condition. Hydro priming had the highest field vigour indexes than all other treatments. Hydro-priming and KH2PO4 had the best performance than other priming treatments. But, in some cases the hydro-priming and KH2PO4 were similar in both laboratory and field condition. We concluded that during the initial stage of plant growth hydro-priming and KH2PO4 had the best responses than other priming treatments.