Improving the Performance of Wheat by Seed Priming Under Saline Conditions

Salinity is one of a major threat in harvesting good wheat stand on sustained basis. In this study, potential of seed priming techniques to improve the performance of wheat varieties (SARC-1 and MH-97) in a saline field was tested. For priming, wheat seeds were soaked in aerated solution of ascorbate (50 mg l-1; ascorbate priming), salicylic acid (50 mg l-1; salicylicate priming), kinetin (50 mg l-1; kinetin priming) and CaCl2 (50 mg l-1; osmopriming) for 12 h. For comparison, seeds were also soaked in simple water (hydropriming); in addition, untreated seeds were also taken as control. Seed priming treatments substantially improved the stand establishment; osmopriming (with CaCl2) was at the top however. Likewise maximum fertile tillers, grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and harvest index were observed in plants raised from seeds osmoprimed (with CaCl2) followed by ascorbate priming in both the varieties tested. As an index of salinity tolerance, seed priming treatments also improved the leaf K+ contents with simultaneous decrease in Na+ concentration, osmopriming being the best treatment. Similarly, maximum total phenolic contents, total soluble proteins (TSP), a-amylase and protease activities were observed in osmoprimed (with CaCl2) seeds followed by ascorbate priming. Economic analysis also indicated that osmopriming is more viable with maximum net return and benefit-to-cost ratio. In conclusion, different seed priming treatments in wheat seeds improved the salinity tolerance nonetheless osmopriming (with CaCl2) was the most effective treatments to get higher grain yield and net return in both wheat varieties whereas kinetin was the least effective.