A Critical Study on the Effect of Seed Priming on the Germination, Seedling Emergence, Yield and Quality of Forage Production in Tall Fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb)

Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of priming on germination, emergence, yield and quality of Festuca arundinacea in both laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Previous priming studies have evaluated only germination and seedling emergence for fescue but priming treatment effects on forage quality have not been assessed. A wide variety of priming treatments have been used to enhance seed germination. Hydropriming and osmopriming are commonly used methods to prime the seeds. Hydropriming is the simplest method to hydrating seeds and minimizes the use of chemicals. The Seeds were treated by hydropriming (distiller water) and osmopriming in polyethylene glycol 6000(PEG) and KNO₃ solution for 1, 3 and 6 day with osmotic potential -1.5 and -2.2 MPa. The results from germination percentage test in laboratory showed that with osmotic priming by PEG 1.5 for 6 day germination was significantly higher than with the control (p­ ? 0.05), while, in greenhouse conditions, PEG 2.2 MPa for 1 day increased the seedling emergence (76.7%) compared to control (42.5%). Primed seeds also had significantly higher fresh weights than the seeds by other treatment and the control. The maximum digestibility percentage of dry matter and crude protein percentage of forage was recorded in PEG 1.5 MPa for 6 day that which exhibited significant difference with untreated seeds. The present study showed that priming enhanced the performance of germination the parameters of emergence and the quality in both laboratory and greenhouse conditions. The Results suggest that, the principle of management and decision about efficacy of priming is not suitable to be assessed from absolute measures of laboratory performance.