Seed Treatment :: Special

Seed Treatment :: Methods

SEED HARDENING FOR DROUGHT TOLERANCE

What is? Seed hardening is physiological preconditioning of the seed by hydration to with stand drought under rainfed condition.

Methodology

Soak the seed in water or in chemical solution for definite duration in proper seed to solution ratio
Shade drying to bring back the seed to original moisture content

Hardening technique for various crop

Crop	Chemical and concentration	Methodology
Pearl millet	2% potassium chloride	Dissolve 20 gm of salt in 1000 ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 650 ml of this solution for 10 hours and dry back to original moisture.
Sorghum	2% potassium chloride	Dissolve 20 gm of salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 650 ml of the solution for 16 hours and dry back to original moisture or weight.
Cotton	2% Potassium chloride	Dissolve 20 gm of salt in 1000 ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 650 ml of this solution for 10 hours and dry back to original moisture.
Sunflower	Potassium chloride	Dissolve 20 gm of salt in 1000 ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 650 ml of this solution for 12 hours and dry back to original moisture.
Black gram & Green gram	100ppm Zinc sulphate 100ppm Manganese sulphate	Dissolve 1000mg of salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 350 ml of the solution for 3 hours and dry back to original moisture or weight.
Ragi	0.2% Sodium chloride	Dissolve 2 g of salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 700 ml of solution for 6 hrs and dry back to original moisture content or weight.
Groundnut	0.5% calcium chloride	Dissolve 5 g of salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 300 ml of solution for 4 hours and dry back to original moisture or weight.
Redgram	100ppm Zinc sulphate	Dissolve 1000mg salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 300 ml of solution for 4 hrs and dry back to original moisture or weight.
Bengal gram	1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate	Dissolve 10g salt in 1000ml of water. Soak 1 kg of seed in 350 ml of solution for 4 hrs and dry back to original moisture or weight

Benefits

It increases the speed of germination and germination percentage
It increases the seeding vigour.
The uniformity of seedling emergence.
Increases the root growth.
Flowering occurs 2-3 days earlier.
Uniform seed set and maturity.
Increases the yield.

Updated On: Jan, 2016