EVALUATION AND EFFECT OF SEED INVIGORATION METHODS ON TURFGRASS SEED QUALITY AND ESTABLISHMENT
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Date
2022-12-28
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University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Bangalore
Abstract
The drought and heat tolerance with an excellent restorative capacity makes bermuda grass suitable for railway batter erosion control, pasture establishment and outdoor sports. Laboratory and polyhouse study were conducted during 2021-22 at AICRP on Seed (Crops), UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru, for evaluation of varieties and to find out best invigoration methods. Among these turfgrasses, Bermuda hybrid grass performed better in most of the seed quality and seedling performance parameters viz., 1000 seed weight (0.355 g), seedling emergence (70%), speed of emergence (8.12), mean seedling length (13.22 cm), mean seedling dry weight (11.97 mg), SVI-I (925), SVI-II (837), stem thickness (0.44 mm), fresh weight (173.33 mg), dry weight (18.00 mg) and root-shoot ratio (0.233). Further, Bermuda hybrid grass was imposed with 19 different invigoration treatments. Among the treatments, matrix priming with vermiculite (1:10) recorded maximum seedling emergence (99%) and speed of emergence (16.97) whereas, higher mean seedling length (18.29 cm), mean seedling dry weight (28.00 mg), SVI-I (1683) and SVI-II (2576) was recorded significantly in GA3 @ 50μM, followed by KNO3 @ 0.2% for 2 days and lowest values were recorded in NaOH @ 4% and cocopeat (1:10). However, priming with NaOCl @ 4% recorded highest plant height (27.27 cm), fresh weight (0.642 g) and dry weight (0.315 g) at 60 DAS. Therefore, priming with these treatments helps in uniform growth and establishment which can be used commercially for better quality turf spread and also, based on seed quality parameters, Bermuda hybrid grass is suitable for establishment of large-scale turf production.