Ahmad Khan, Shad Khan Khalil*, Shakirullah Khan** and Ashfaq Afzal
* Department of Agronomy, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar- Pakistan.
** Department of Extension Education and Commutation, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar- Pakistan.
ABSTRACT
Seed priming had increased germination of several plants particularly vegetables. The effect of PEG 8000 concentrations levels i.e. 100, 200, 300 g liter-1 water, water soaked and control (seed not treated) on germination m-2 and plant population hectare-1 at harvest of Mung bean varieties NM-92 and NM-98 seeds treated for 6 and 12 hours and then dried for a whole day in open air at room temperature, were studied at Agricultural Research Farm, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar during 2003. Emergence m-2 was significantly enhanced by 8% for treated seed compared to control but has non-significant improvement over water soaked. Emergence was increased from 56% (control) to 69% for seed treated 300 g PEG liter-1 water. Longer treatment duration (12 hours) significantly increased emergence m-2 by 1% compared to 6 hours treatment. Though non-significant result was found for plant at harvest yet increment in PEG concentrations had resulted in more number of plants at harvest for primed seed compared to non-primed seed. In conclusion PEG 8000 treated seeds showed better performance than both water soaking and control seeds. INTRODUCTION Mung bean (Vigna radiata Wilczk) belongs to family leguminoseae, cultivated in summer through out Pakistan. Being leguminous crop, poor crop establishment is often cited as a major constraint for mung bean production (Naseem et al., 1997; Kirchof et al., 2000; Rahmianna et al., 2000). Mung bean germination and performance is always correlated with early vigor (Kumar et al., 1989).
