THE EFFECTS OF SEED PRIMING TECHNIQUES IN IMPROVING GERMINATION AND EARLY SEEDLING GROWTH OF WATER MELON – C itrullus lanatus

The effect of seed priming techniques in improving germination and early seedling growth of Citrullus lanatus Thumb (Water melon) was carried out in Odi, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors examined include four treatment groups of seed priming and control (without priming). The treatment groups include water, Sodium chloride (with concentration of 5 g/l), Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (with concentration of 5 g/l) and 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (with concentration of 1 mg/L) for 12 h, respectively. In this experiment traits such as germination percentage, germination rate, radicle length and plumule length were measured. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (version 20.0) software and the differences between means were compared by Turkey’s HSD post-hoc analysis (P < 0.05). Comparison of seed germination characteristics and seedling vigor of the four different treatment groups showed that seeds primed by water had the highest percentage and rate of germination with 96% and 1.71, plumule length (36.57±9.52) and dry weight of seedling (0.603 g) of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) except for the radicle length which NAA had the highest but there was no significant difference (p˂0.05) among the treatment. In conclusion, primed seeds with water improved Citrullus lanatus germination potential and seedlings growth.

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