Abstract
The influence of seed priming using different priming agents (distilled water, NaCl, salicylic acid, acetyl
salicylic acid, ascorbic acid, PEG-8000 and KNO3) on seed vigour of hot pepper cv. Hot Queen was
examined. Primed seeds of each treatment were cultured in Petri dishes, kept at 25+2 ºC and 16 hours
photoperiod, to evaluate the effect of different priming agents on seed vigour. All priming treatments
significantly improved seed performance over the control. KNO3 primed seeds excelled over all other
treatments; decreased time taken to 50% germination, increased root and shoot length, seedling fresh
weight and vigour over all other priming agents. Water and NaCl, being cheapest and easily affordable by
the farmers were used for further studies on salt tolerance. Seeds were primed in water (hydropriming)
and NaCl (1% solution) (halopriming) and sown in pots at different salinity levels [1.17 (control), 3, 5 and 7
dS m-1], along with unprimed seeds. Emergence rate (ER), final emergence percentage (FEP), reduction
percentage of emergence (RPE), shoots length, number of secondary roots, seedling fresh weight and
vigour were significantly improved by both priming treatments over the control; halopriming was more
effective than hydropriming. Number of secondary roots was maximum in haloprimed and unprimed
seeds. Seed priming treatment did not significantly affect root length, fresh and dry weight of seedlings.
Results indicated that seed priming can be used for improving performance of pepper seeds and
seedlings grown under saline conditions.
