EFFECT OF SEED PRIMING WITH SALICYLIC ACID AND ZINC FERTILIZATION ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF BORO RICE

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food for over two billion people in Asia. Seed priming with growth regulators, especially salicylic acid, is a promising alternative seed primer because it is an important inducer of resistance against diseases and pests, as well as acting significantly on quality and seed yield. A field experiment was carried out at Agronomy research field in Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur located at 25.56°N latitude and 88.5°E longitude at an altitude of 37 m above from the mean sea level during the period from 14th December 2018 to 17th May 2019 to study the influence of seed priming by Salicylic Acid in comparison to non-priming or exogenous application of SA on growth and yield contributing character of BRRI Dhan28. The experiment was laid out into Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Two factors were taken in this study viz. factor A: P1= Without priming seedling, P2= Seed priming by SA and P3= Exogenous application of SA; Factor B: Z1 = 7 kg Zn ha-1, Z2 = 14 kg Zn ha-1 and Z3 = 21 kg Zn ha-1. Data were recorded on different growth, and yield contributing parameters. Among the yield and yield contributing parameters namely effective tillers hill-1, filled grains panicle-1, unfilled grain panicle-1, grain yield and straw yield were significantly varied with priming treatments as well as level of zinc application. The highest plant height (101.43 cm), number of effective tillers per hill (18.86) was found in the treatment T5 due to the primed seed by SA and application of 14 kg zinc ha-1. The highest number of filled grain (127.37) was found in treatment T5. The maximum grain yield (6.38 t ha-1), straw yield (6.88 t ha-1), biological yield (13.23 t ha-1) and harvest index (48.11 %) were found in the treatment T5. On the other hand, minimum grain yield (4.51 t ha-1), the lowest straw weight (5.98 t ha-1), biological yield (10.48 t ha-1), harvest index (41.443 %) was found in the treatment T1 (without priming + zinc 7 kg ha-1). According to grain yield treatments can be arranged as T5>T6>T8>T4>T9>T7>T2>T3>T1. The treatments can be arranged according to straw yield asT5>T6>T4>T8>T7>T9>T2>T3>T1. From these results it can be concluded that all of the important growth parameters and yield contributing characters were improved due to seed priming interacting with zinc 14 kg ha-1 resulting higher yield of BRRI dhan28.