Effect of Seed Hardening on Seed Germination and Morphological Parameters in Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L)

Seed hardening refers to different processes that involve treating seeds to enhance their resilience, break seed dormancy and improve their chances of successful germination and plant establishment during harsh conditions. Seeds are soaked in the solutions of KCl, NAA, KNo3 and CaCl2 to break dormancy increase the germination percentage and improve plant morphological parameters in linseed. The experiment was carried out for “Effect of seed hardening on seed germination and morphological parameters in Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L),, during Rabi season in the year 2022 at Field Experimentation Centre, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology And Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh on linseed crop. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 13 treatments and 3 replications. T0-Control, T1-NAA-25 ppm, T2-NAA-50 ppm, T3-NAA-150 ppm, T4-KCl-25 ppm, T5-KCl-50 ppm, T6-KCl-150 ppm, T7-KNo3-25 ppm, T8-KNo3-50 ppm, T9-KNo3-150 ppm, T10-CaCl2-25 ppm, T11-CaCl2-50 ppm, T12-CaCl2-150 ppm were the treatments. Linseed seeds were treated with NAA, KCl, KNo3 and CaCl2 with different concentrations (25 ppm,50 ppm and 150 ppm) for 5 hours and after sowing growth, yield and yield parameters were observed. The main objectives are to determine the effect of seed hardening on seed germination and morphological characteristics of Linseed and to find out the suitable concentration for seed hardening in Linseed. It was noticed that T9-KNo3-150 ppm treatment performed better significantly different at a 5% level of significance, when compared with other treatments where a minimum was observed in control. The highest germination percentage (92.20%), plant height (74.34 cm), number of primary branches (3.87), number of secondary branches (23.53), seeds per capsule (8.13), seed yield per plant (3.42) and harvest index (25.38%) showing better results when treated with treatment (T9)-KNo3-150 ppm for 5 hours and followed by Treatment(T11) CaCl2-50 ppm. Very less days (72) required for 50% flowering and maturity (111.67) were observed in treatment T9 when compared with other treatments. It concluded that T9(KNo3-150 ppm) was superior in all the growth and yield parameters in linseed. So we recommended that treatment T9 is the best seed hardening treatment for linseed according to this experiment.