Seed invigoration and Priming treatments

Pooja Pahal
2022A64D
SST509/PP511
Department of Vegetable Science
 Seed invigoration
• Seed invigoration treatments are value added treatments
applied on a given seed lot to improve its field performance.
• Seed invigoration or seed enhancements are “post-harvest”
treatments to improve germination and seedling growth
required at the time of sowing.
• This definition includes three general methods pre-sowing
hydration treatments (priming), coating technologies and seed
conditioning.
• Seed enhancement technologies are gaining increasing
attention for their potential to confer greater disease resistance
in seeds, improve seed vigor and modify seed emergence
capabilities.
 Objectives of Seed quality enhancement
• Improve germination/seedling growth through manipulation of
seed vigour or physiological status of the seed.
• Facilitate seed planting (Pelleting, Coating and Encrusting).
• Deliver the materials (other than pesticides) needed at sowing
(e.g. nutrients, inoculants).
• Remove weak or dead seeds using nontraditional upgrading
techniques (density, color, sorting).
• Tagging of seeds with visible pigments or other materials/markers
for traceability and identity preservation.
 Why treat seeds?
 Higher yield
 Improved crop quality
 A safeguard against disease
 Pest protection with lower environmental impact
 A smart way to apply anti-pest products
 Smooth machinery operation
 Easier handling
 Thermal treatments
Heat Treatments
• Control the external and internal seed-borne
pathogens, including fungi, bacteria, viruses, and
nematodes.
• Break the dormancy of seeds.
Pre sowing chilling
• Also called cold stratification.
• Cold treatment releases the dormancy and enhance
plant tolerance to salt stress.
• The beneficial effects of cold stratification could be
attributed to ionic homeostasis and hormonal balance.
Physiological seed enhancements
Seed priming
• Seed priming is a pre-sowing approach for influencing the seedling
development by stimulating pre-germination metabolic activities prior to
the emergence of radicle and improvement in the germination rate and
performance of plant.
• Seed priming is a controlled hydration process in which seeds are dipped
in water or any solution for a specific time period to allow the seed to
complete its metabolic activities before sowing and then re-dried to
original weight.
 Seed priming process

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 Hydropriming
• Hydropriming is a controlled hydration
process that involves seed soaking in simple
water and then re-drying to their initial
moisture.
• No chemical is used during this technique but
some cases of non-uniform hydration causes
uneven germination.
• Among the different seed enhancement
techniques, hydropriming could be a suitable
treatment under salinity stress and drought-
prone environments.

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 Advantages

• Hydropriming as a risk free, simple and cheap technique

has become popular among farmers, with promising
effects in the context of extensive farming system.
• Hydro-primed seeds produced healthy seedlings, which
resulted in uniform crop stand, drought resistance, early
maturity and somewhat improved yield.
On farm seed priming
• FARMERS can prime their own seeds.
• Seeds are soaked in clean water, usually overnight (about 8-12
hours).
• After soaking, the water is drained off and the seeds are surface-
dried by placing them on a cloth or plastic sheet on the ground for
15 to 30 minutes.

Hardening
• Repeated soaking of seeds in (aerated) water and re-drying. This
hydration-dehydration cycle may be repeated twice, thrice and so
on.
 Halopriming

Halo priming
• Soaking of seeds in salt solutions was proposed as
alternative to priming which enhanced germination
and increase seedling emergence uniformity under
adverse environmental conditions.
• Commonly using salts are NaCl, KNO3, CaCl2.

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 Osmopriming
• Osmopriming involves seed hydration in an
osmotic solution of low water potential such as
polyethylene glycol or a salt solution under
controlled aerated conditions to permit imbibition
but prevent radical protrusion.
• For osmopriming, mostly polyethylene glycol or
salt solution is used to regulate water uptake and
to check radicle protrusion.
• Most commonly used salts for osmopriming are
potassium chloride, potassium nitrate, sodium
chloride, magnesium sulphate, potassium
phosphate, calcium chloride and potassium
hydrophosphate.
 Hormonal priming
• Plant-growth hormones or their derivatives contained by several
products are indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), an auxin and kinetin type of
cytokinin.
• Priming with optimum concentration of cytokinins has been reported to
increase germination, growth and yield of many crop species.
• GA has stimulatory effect on hydrolytic enzymes, which speed up the
germination and promote seedling elongation by degrading the cells
surrounding the radicle in cereal seeds.
• Various naturally occurring growth promoting substances such as
moringa leaf extract, chitosan, sorghum water extract and seed weed
extract are commonly used for seed priming.
 Nutrient priming

• The application of micronutrients with priming can improve stand

establishment, growth and yield; furthermore, the enrichment of grain
with micronutrients is also reported in most cases.
• Many researchers proved the potential of nutrient priming in improving
wheat, rice and forage legumes.
• Among micronutrients, Zn, B, Mo, Mn, Cu and Co are highly used as
seed treatments for most of the field crops.
• Seed treatment with micronutrient is a potentially low-cost way to
improve nutrition of crops.
 Matrixpriming
• Incubation of seeds in a
solid, insoluble matrix
(vermiculite, diatomaceous
earth) with a limited amount
of water.”
• Solid matrix carriers e.g.
Micro CellE®, Celite, Press
mud, Jute mat, Peat soil,
compost

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 Bioprimimg
• Biopriming is a new technique of seed enhancement integrating biological
(inoculation of seed with beneficial organism to protect seed) and physiological
aspects (seed hydration) to promote plant growth, development and suppression
of diseases.
• It is used as an alternative approach for controlling many seed- and soil-borne
pathogens. Seed priming with beneficial microorganisms (bacteria and fungus)
often result in more rapid growth and increase plant vigour and may be useful
under adverse soil conditions.
• Besides diseases control, the application of PGPR as a biopriming agent for
biofertilization is an attractive option to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers.
PGPR that have been tested as co-inoculants with rhizobia include strains of the
following rhizobacteria: Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Bacillus, Pseudomonas,
Serratia and Streptomyces.
• Application of materials to the seed surface, often
containing seed Protectants such as fungicides.
• A major advantage of film coating is reduced loss of
active material from the seed during seed transport and
handling.
 Seed Coating
Application of coating substance to the seed to enhance seed placement and
performance with out altering shape or placing chemicals on the seed coat which
regulate and improve germination.
Advantages of Seed Coating
•  Enables accurate and even dose of chemicals and reduces chemical wastage.
• Improve the appearance and dust free handling.
• To apply fungicides, insecticides, micronutrients directly to seed.
• Allow easy flow of seed in automatic seeding.
• Act as a temperature switch and water intake regulator.
 Seed pelleting
• Inert materials are added to change seed size
and shape for improved plant ability.”
• Used to round out small or irregular shaped
seed, or to make small seeds larger –
improves singulation and speed of sowing.
• Seed in rotating drum is wetted, and blends
of powdered materials (e.g. chalk, clays,
perlite, lime, peat, talc) plus water-attracting
or hydrophobic materials are progressively
added, along with more water, until desired
pellet wt or size increase is achieved.
 Encrusting
• Addition of a small amount of material to a seed to
enable accurate mechanical seed metering.
• Encrusting adds more weight to the finished product
than film coating and significantly less weight than
pelleting.
• Apply a minimum amount of filler materials and
binders, whist still increasing the size of the seed, and
filling out any irregular shapes and surfaces.
Advantages of Seed Quality Enhancement Technology
• Reduced seed rate
• Early emergence and reduced time of emergence under stress
conditions
• Supply of growth regulators/nutrients/beneficial microbes
• Better nursery management
• Helps seedling to dominate weeds in competition for nutrition
• Field stand and uniformity
• Minimum exposure to toxicant
• Direct seeding of conventionally transplanted vegetable seeds.
• High turnover
Conclusions and future prospects
• Seed enhancements have a wide range of commercial applications from
improved crop stands through better germination rates and seedling vigour
effective in crop stress management, and improved crop yields together with
efficient use of resources such as fertilizers, water and seeds.
• Reduce seedling emergence time, improve stand establishment and yield.
• Sustainable crop production requires the adoption of low-cost and environment
friendly seed enhancement techniques.
• Biological seed enhancement with bacteria and fungi is one of the most
appropriate techniques in disease control and growth promotion which can be
exploited by seed industry.
• Longevity of primed seeds during storage remains a problem, which needs to be
re-addressed, and work should be extended on other physical or biological seed
treatments for their storability.
SYMBOL OF TRUST