With the rapid development of agriculture in our country, people's demand for the quality and production of greenhouse agricultural products is constantly improving, in order to better meet the demand for vegetable greenhouse environment monitoring, this paper designs a kind of vegetable greenhouse monitoring system based on ZigBee and GPRS, the system is integrated with wireless sensor network technology and GPRS technology for data collection, wireless transmission, remote communication and monitoring. The system sets up wireless sensor LAN network with ZigBee technology, and collects temperature and humidity and light intensity data to the coordinator node, then using GPRS technology to send data to the Internet, and finally using Visual Studio software to realize human-computer interaction interface with ASP.NET technology, to realize the vegetable greenhouse environment remote monitoring. The system has the characteristics of mobile flexibility, forming network fast, low cost and low power consumption, Experiments have proved that the system is stable and the measuring accuracy is higher, which can meet the needs of the monitoring of the greenhouse and can be widely used in agricultural production.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) provides about 55–80% of the total calories for people in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Elsewhere, it represents a high-value commodity crop. Change in the method of crop establishment from traditional manual transplantation of seedlings to direct seeding has been adopted in many Asian countries in the last two decades, in view of rising production costs, especially for labor and water. Seed invigoration is ascribed to beneficial treatments, applied to the seeds after harvest but prior to sowing, that improve germination or seedling growth or facilitate the delivery of seeds and other materials required at the time of sowing. Many seed invigoration treatments are being employed in a number of field crops, including rice, to improve seedling establishment under normal and stressful conditions. The treatments used to invigorate rice seed include hydropriming, seed hardening, on-farm priming, osmopriming, osmohardening, humidification, matripriming, priming with plant growth regulators, polyamines, ascorbate, salicylicate, ethanol, osmolytes, coating technologies, and more recently presowing dry heat treatments. In the wake of the day-to-day increasing cost of labor and shortage of water, direct seeding approaches in rice cropping systems are the subject of intensive investigation throughout the world and offer an attractive alternative to traditional rice production systems. In this regard, seed invigoration techniques are pragmatic approaches to achieving proper stand establishment in the new rice culture. They help in breaking dormancy and improving seedling density per unit area under optimal and adverse soil conditions. Induction and de novo synthesis of hydrolases, such as amylases, lipases, proteases; and antioxidants such as catalases, superoxide dismutase and peroxidases are reported to be the basis of improved performance using these techniques. The rice seed priming can be performed by soaking simply in water, a solution of salts, hormones, osmoprotectants, matric strain-producing materials, and other nonconventional means. Despite certain limitations, such as water potential, oxygen and temperature, rice seed invigoration has been worthwhile in improving rice yield and quality. Nevertheless, in-depth studies are imperative for understanding the physiological and molecular basis of rice seed priming.

Poor seedling establishment is a major deterrent in adopting direct seeding of rice. Seed priming to obtain better crop stand could be an attractive approach. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of seed priming strategies on the improved agronomic characters of direct-sown rice. Seed priming strategies were: hydropriming for 48 h, osmohardening with KCl or CaCl2 for 24 h, ascorbate priming for 48 h and seed hardening for 24 h, pre-germination (traditional soaking for nursery raising) and untreated control. Seed priming improved germination and emergence, allometry, kernel yield, and its quality, whilst pre-germination displayed poor and erratic emergence of seedling followed by poor plant performance. Faster and uniform emergence was due to improved α-amylase activity, which increased the level of soluble sugars in the primed kernels. Osmohardening with KCl gave greater kernel and straw yield and harvest index, followed by that of CaCl2, hardening and ascorbate priming. Improved yield was attributed principally to number of fertile tillers and 1000 kernel weight. A positive correlation between mean emergence time and days to heading, while a negative one between kernel yield and harvest index suggested long-term effects of seed priming on plant growth and development. The results suggest that physiological changes produced by osmohardening enhanced the starch hydrolysis and made more sugars available for embryo growth, vigorous seedling production and, later on, improved allometric, kernel yield and quality attributes.

Poor crop establishment is one of the major constraints to obtain the higher potential of rice, particularly in areas prone to environmental stresses. Therefore, present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of potassium nitrate on germination dynamics, seedling growth and associated physiological and biochemical events of two rice cultivars. For this purpose, various seed priming treatments were tested in lab and greenhouse. The percent concentrations of potassium nitrate were 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.25 in both lab evaluation and greenhouse experiment. Non-primed seeds were maintained as a control for comparison. The results depicted that soaking rice seeds at higher concentrations of KNO3 could delay emergence time and final emergence (%) in both cultivars under lab and greenhouse conditions. Seed priming with 0.75% KNO3 significantly increased the stand establishment and seedling vigor attributes of both cultivars compared with other concentrations and naked rice seeds both in lab evaluation and greenhouse screening. Similarly, highest values for photosynthesis rate, evaporation rate and CO2 index were observed in experimental units receiving primed seeds with 0.75% KNO3 under greenhouse screening. Interestingly, no variance was observed among both rice cultivars. Overall, higher seed emergence, seedling vigor and associated biochemical attributes due to seed priming with 0.75% KNO3 was associated with decrease in alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDH) activities in lab and greenhouse screening.

In order to evaluate the effect of seed priming on seedling emergence, grain yield and yield components of wheat, a 2-year experiment was conducted at Seed and Plant Certification & Registration Institute (SPCRI) in Karaj, Iran, from 2008-2010. Two cultivars (Azar-2, Sardare-101) × four priming media and control (unsoaked) were used in this experiment in field. Seeds were primed for 12 hour and 20°C in four priming media (PEG 10%, KCl 2%, KH2PO4 0.5%, distilled water) and control. Results of comparing means showed that osmotic priming with PEG10% had positive significant effects on emergence percentage, straw, grain and biological yield compared to other seed priming treatments (KCl 2%, KH2PO4 0.5% and distilled water). It was recognized that the maximum straw, biological yield, kernel weight, number of spikes per m 2 was obtained from Sardari-101 meanwhile the highest number of kernels per spike was achieved from Azar-2. Results of interaction between year × seed priming treatment showed that maximum seed yield was obtained from PEG 10% and Sardari-101 (with average of 420 gr/m2 ).

Effects of hormonal priming by cytokinin (CK), auxin, and gibberellin (GA) at 0, 25, 50, and 100 ppm of aged and nonaged seeds of bromegrass (Bromus inermis) on some physiological properties of seedlings were evaluated in a pot experiment. The seeds were subjected to accelerated aging to produce aged seeds. Percentage and rate of seedling emergence, seedling vigor, seedling-growth rate (SGR), seedling dry weight, chlorophyll and activity of catalase and peroxidase of seedling decreased following accelerated aging. Auxin priming improved emergence, vigor, SGR, root length, shoot, and seedling height. CK produced largest leaf area, whereas GA-primed seed had the highest concentration of chlorophyll in seedlings. Results suggested that physiological quality of bromegrass seed, especially aged seed, could be improved by hormonal priming. Auxin had the most positive effect on percent emergence, rate of emergence and SGR; CK and GA had positive effects on chlorophyll and leaf area. The three phytohormones in appropriate ratio in the priming solution improved aged seeds of bromegrass physiologically.

Agriculture in Mali, a country in Sahelian West Africa, strongly depends on rainfall and concurrently has a low adaptive capacity, making it consequently one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change worldwide. Since early-season drought limits crop germination, and hence growth, ultimately yield during rain-fed depending on production is commonly experienced nowadays in Mali. Germination and establishment of key crops such as the staple sorghum could be improved by seed priming. The effects of hydro-priming with different water sources (e.g., distilled, tap, rain, river, well water) were evaluated respectively for three priming time durations in tepid e.g., at 25 °C (4, 8, and 12 h) and by hot water at 70 °C (in contrast to 10, 20, and 30 min.) in 2014 and 2015. Seed germination and seedling development of nine sorghum genotypes were monitored. Compared to non-primed seed treatments, hydro-priming significantly [p = 0.01] improved final germination percentage, germination rate index, total seedling length, root length, root vigor index, shoot length, and seedling dry weight. The priming with water from wells and rivers resulted in significant higher seed germination (85%) and seedling development, compared to the three other sources of water. Seed germination rate, uniformity, and speed were enhanced by hydro-priming also. It is argued that hydro-priming is a safe and simple method that effectively improve seed germination and seedling development of sorghum. If used in crop fields, the above most promising genotypes may contribute to managing early season drought and avoid failure of seed germination and crop failure in high climate variability contexts.

Abstract Seed priming is a method which is potentially able to promote rapid and more uniform seed germination and plant growth. In this study the presowing effects of seed priming treatments on some physiological viz. seed germination, mean germination time, seedling vigour and vigour index and biochemical parameters viz. seed viability, electrical conductivity of seed leachates, lipid peroxidation, dehydrogenase activity, antioxidant enzymes, reserve mobilising enzymes and field performance of okra were investigated. Seeds were subjected to four seed priming methods, namely, hydropriming, osmopriming, halopriming and solid matrix (SM) priming comprising a total of 19 treatments of different priming combinations (P1–P18) along with control (P0). Hydropriming for 12 h and SM priming with calcium aluminium silicate (1:0.4:1; Seed:SM:Water) for 24 h significantly increased the seed germination, seedling vigour, mean germination time and marketable fruit yield in okra cv. Hisar Unnat. Hydropriming, being simple, economical and safe, is recommended which can be effective to increase the fruit yield up to 55% as compared to control.

Abstract Low germination and vigor of rice seed associated with dry-seed broadcasting are common problems encountered by rice growers. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the role of potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) on the pattern of seed imbibition and to determine the effect of seed priming with KNO 3 on the germination percentage, speed and uniformity of germination in rice seed. Experiment 1 compared the patterns of seed imbibition of six concentrations of KNO 3 (0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, 1.50, and 2.00%) in two rice cultivars — KDML105 and RD15. The results showed that soaking rice seed in KNO 3 at higher concentrations could delay the imbibition time. The higher concentrations of KNO 3 delayed the imbibition time of rice seed and took a longer time to reach the end of phases 1 and 2 compared to the lower concentrations. The patterns of seed imbibition using distilled water of both rice cultivars (KDML105 and RD15) were quite similar, but with different concentrations of KNO 3 , the imbibition time taken to reach the end of phases 1 and 2 was slightly postponed in KDML105 suggesting that different rice cultivars may need different imbibition times for soaking seed in the priming process. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of seed priming with 1.0 and 2.0% KNO 3 at different imbibition times. It was found that priming with 1.0% KNO 3 showed better seed germination than priming with 2.0% KNO 3 and seed priming with 1.0% KNO 3 at the imbibition time of early phase 2 (or 28 h for KDML105) improved seed germination and increased both the speed and uniformity of seed germination. The results of this study show promise for the use of priming with 1.0% KNO 3 soaked until early phase 2 of seed imbibition for improving the seed germination and vigor of rice in dry seed broadcasting.