European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

OPTIMIZING HYDROPRIMING DURATION FOR PIGEONPEA (CAJANUS CAJAN (L.) MILLSP.) SEED GERMINATION AND VIGOUR

Ankita Vishwakarma, Tulika Mishra*

ABSTRACT

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is an important nutraceutical legume of the Indian subcontinent, valued for its rich content of proteins, dietary fibre, minerals and bioactive phenolic compounds, but its field productivity remains low owing to poor seed germination, delayed seedling emergence and weak seedling vigour. Seed priming, particularly hydropriming, is a simple, low-cost and eco-friendly pre-sowing treatment reported to improve crop establishment in several pulse crops. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the effect of hydropriming duration on seed germination and early seedling growth of Cajanus cajan. Surface-sterilized seeds were hydroprimed by soaking in sterile distilled water for 6, 12 and 24 hours (T2, T3 and T4, respectively) and compared with untreated control seeds (T1) in a Completely Randomized Design with three replications. Germination percentage, mean germination time, germination index, seed vigour index, root length, shoot length and allometric index were recorded. Hydropriming significantly improved all germination and seedling growth parameters relative to the control. The 12-hour hydropriming treatment (T3) produced the highest germination percentage (9.53%), germination index (3.75) and seed vigour index (47.07), the greatest root length (4.20 cm) and shoot length (4.73 cm), and the shortest mean germination time (2.47 days), while the allometric index (1.33) remained unchanged across all treatments, indicating balanced root–shoot growth. These findings demonstrate that hydropriming for 12 hours is the most effective duration for enhancing seed vigour and seedling establishment in pigeon pea and can be recommended as a practical, low-input seed-enhancement technique for improving crop stand under rainfed and marginal farming conditions.

Keywords: Cajanus cajan, pigeon pea, hydropriming, seed priming, seed germination, seedling vigour index.