Effect of Seed Priming with Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs) on Plant Growth Parameters of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

A field experiment at Student’s instructional Farm of C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, during the rabi seasons of 2023-24 and 2024-25 was conducted to assess the effect of various priming treatments on plant growth characters for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. cv. KWR 108). The experiment examined fifteen treatments, which included different plant growth regulators and in different concentrations under Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. Various parameters, viz., field emergence (%), days to flowering initiation, days to 50 % flowering, plant height (cm), number of primary branches, and number of secondary branches, revealed significant treatment effects. However, priming with GA₃ at 100 ppm for 8 hours gave peak responses for various parameters viz., field emergence (90.85%), days to flowering initiation (64.17), days to 50 % flowering (76.31), plant height (65.27cm), number of primary branches (7.93), number of secondary branches (15.68). Apart from this, the untreated control showed lowest results for all the various parameters studied. Hence, from the above results it could be concluded that the optimal priming with GA₃ at 100 ppm for 8h. substantially enhanced all the various parameters in chickpea.