Effect of Seed Priming with Potassium Nitrate on the Performance of Tomato

Muhammad Moaaz Ali, Talha Javed, Rosario Paolo Mauro, Rubab Shabbir, Irfan Afzal and Ahmed Fathy Yousef
Additional contact information
Muhammad Moaaz Ali: College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
Talha Javed: College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
Rosario Paolo Mauro: Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente (Di3A), Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Valdisavoia, 5-95123 Catania, Italy
Rubab Shabbir: College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
Irfan Afzal: Seed Physiology Lab, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan
Ahmed Fathy Yousef: College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-10

Abstract: The seed industry and farmers have challenges, which include the production of poor quality and non-certified tomato seed, which ultimately results in decreased crop production. The issue carefully demands pre-sowing treatments using exogenous chemical plant growth-promoting substances. Therefore, to mitigate the above-stated problem, a series of experiments were conducted to improve the quality of tomato seeds (two cultivars, i.e., “Sundar” and “Ahmar”) and to enhance the stand establishment, vigor, physiological, and biochemical attributes under growth chamber and greenhouse conditions by using potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) as a seed priming agent. Seeds were imbibed in 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 KNO 3 (weight/volume) for 24 h and then dried before experiments. The results of growth chamber and greenhouse screening show that experimental units receiving tomato seeds primed with 0.75% KNO 3 in both cultivars performed better as compared to other concentrations and nonprimed control. Significant increase in final emergence (%), mean emergence time, and physiological attributes were observed with 0.75% KNO 3 . Collectively, the improved performance of tomato due to seed priming with 0.75% KNO 3 was linked with higher activities of total soluble sugars and phenolics under growth chamber and greenhouse screening.

Keywords: Solanum lycopersicum L.; crop establishment; potassium nitrate; seed quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/498/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/498/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:11:p:498-:d:434335

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().