MITIGATIVE RESPONSE OF PRIMING AGAINST DROUGHT-INDUCED CHANGES IN MORPHOLOGICAL GROWTH AND YIELD OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.)

Abstract

The existence of new plant and their further growth is depending upon the healthy and high-quality seed. Priming techniques are a strategy that opens a new window to enhance the yield of crop via accelerating the initial phase of growth hence to understand the effect of the mitigative response of priming against drought-induced stress on morphological growth and yield of maize crop. The study was comprised of hydro, Osmo, and hormonal priming with KNO3, Mg (NO3)2, and GA3 of different concentrations. Results showed that [T5] i.e. 10 mM concentration of Mg (NO3)2 had a positive impact on all the parameters like plant height (cm), dry weight (g), stem diameter (cm), number of leaves, cob weight (g), grain yield (g), biological yield plant-1 (g), HI % and SPAD Unit recorded maximum % increase over control (43.46, 42.72, 53.99, 52.24, 48.75, 64.07, 36.84, 19.85 and 38.03) which was followed by T3 and T4 i.e. KNO3 and Mg (NO3)2 [15 and 7mM]. Results also indicated a strong positive relationship between the SPAD Unit and the rest of the morphological parameters studied in the present work under drought conditions.