EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PRIMING AGENTS ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF HYBRID MAIZE (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

A field study to evaluate the effect of seed priming on productivity of hybrid corn was carried out at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, during spring 2013. Experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with eight treatments replicated three times. Seeds of maize hybrid Pioneer-32B33 were subjected to priming with various priming agents viz, hydro-priming, priming with zinc sulphate (ZnSO₄), priming with potassium nitrate (KNO₃) and priming with boric acid (H₃BO₃). Two concentrations (0.5% and 1%) were used for each osmo-priming agent and one treatment was kept as control (no treatment) to compare with the priming treatments. The results revealed that seed priming showed significant effect on the performance of maize. Priming treatments improved all the yield contributing parameters of maize. Maximum grain yield (6.40 t ha^-1) was obtained from the plots that were treated with 1% solution of zinc sulphate followed by seed priming with 1% KNO₃ (5.70 t ha^-1)  due to improvement in plant height, number of cobs per plant, number of grains per row, number of grains per cob, 1000-grain weight and harvest index. It is therefore suggested that osmo-priming of maize seeds with ZnSO₄ should be practiced in order to obtain the higher grain yield and net return, under the prevailing agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad