Invigorative potential assessment of priming agents through germination and various seedling attributes of artificially aged seeds in carrot (DAUCUS CAROTA L.)

The decrease in seed viability, a commonly observed phenomenon even in optimal storage conditions, poses a significant challenge, particularly concerning genebank seed collections. Addressing the issue of low viability in genebanks requires dedicated efforts, especially in conducting studies on seed invigoration. This study explored the invigorating effects of KNO/sub 3/, NaCl, KH/sub 2/PO/sub 4/, PEG, salicylic acid, ethanol, GA3, and etheral, both individually and in specific combinations, on artificially aged carrot seeds. When evaluating various priming agents individually, it was noted that GA3 consistently outperformed others, revealing a remarkable 91.4% increase in germination compared to the control. Following closely behind, KNO/sub 3/ demonstrated a 65% improvement in germination. With slight variations, the remaining parameters, namely shoot length (cm), root length (cm), fresh and dry seedling biomass (g) also exhibited a similar trend. On the other hand, KNO/sub 3/ when applied in combination with NaCl, salicylic acid, KH/sub 2/PO/sub 4/, PEG and ethanol, it was noted that its combination with NaCl and KH/sub 2/PO/sub 4/, revealed improved germination revealing 6.7% and 20.4% over control, respectively. While the collective application of invigorants resulted in enhanced germination compared to the control, the improvement was either modest or comparable to their individual application. The remaining combinations did not demonstrate superior performance compared to the control group. Among the tested chemical compounds, salicylic acid exhibited neither individual nor combined invigorating potential in carrot seeds. Instead, it proved to be detrimental, as no germination was observed with this compound. When used alone or in combination, KNO3 emerged as the most versatile invigorating agent, predominantly displaying positive or synergistic effects, with a few exceptions. (author)