Amelioration of Salinity Stress in Maize Seed Germination and Seedling Growth Attributes through Seed Priming

Germination of seedsand growth of seedling respond to seed priming as priming can guard the damageof salinity stress. A study conducted inthe net house of the Department of Agronomy, BAU, Mymensingh during the periodfrom November 2012 to April 2013 investigated the ameliorative effect of seedpriming on seed germination and seedling attributes of maize under varioussalinity stress conditions. The experiment consisted of five seed priming andfour salinity levels (NaCl) and laid out in a Completely Randomized Design(CRD) with three replications. Seed germination and seedling attributes ofmaize varied due to salinity stress and priming. The highest seed germination(95.7%) was recorded when no stress was imposed under hydropriming (48 hours).The germination of seeds performed even well (92.3%) when treated withhydropriming (48 hours) and NaCl@0.25 dSu0026#183m-1 which was followed byhydropriming (24 hours) under no salinity imposed and NaCl@0.25 dSu0026#183m-1 salinity. Hydropriming for 48 hours withoutsalt stress performed the best on number of leaves seedling-1 (8), shoot length (28.2 cm), root length (14.5 cm), fresh weight (100.8 g) anddry weight of seedling (50.3 g). The germination and seedling growth parameterswere reduced with the increase in salinity levels irrespective of priming whileall seed priming treatments showed ameliorative effects. However, reduction inseed germination and seedling attributes wereminimal with hydropriming for 48 hours. The results revealed thatpriming of maize seeds could be used for amelioration of salinity stress andhydropriming for 48 hours appeared as the best seed priming treatment.