NaCl PRIMING LEVELS ON GERMINATION AND SEEDLING DEVELOPMENT OF CHILLI UNDER SALINE CONDITION

An experiment was conducted in 2abiotech lab, Department of Horticulture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Dhaka, during July –August, 2016 to evaluate the effect of NaCl priming on germination and seedling growth of chilli viz. SAU-Surjomukhi. Three priming treatments viz. P₀= 0dS, P₁= 2ds, P₂= 4dS was used to prime the chilli seeds and sown in plug trays placed on a saline solution of 10dS arranged in Completely Randomized Design with 3 replications. Priming showed considerable positive effect on all the studied characteristics. The best germination percentage (82.4), shoot length (3.7 cm), root length (3.9 cm), seedling length (7.6 cm), shoot fresh weight (346.7 mg), root fresh weight (43.7 mg) and mean germination time (6.7) was observed in P₂ treatment whereas the poorest (48.8, 2.1 cm, 3.0 cm, 4.5 cm, 213.3 mg, 29.4 mg and 11.7 respectively) was observed in P₀. So priming has beneficial effect on seed germination and early seedling growth under saline condition and can be used as a viable technique for seedling production in saline areas.