R.B. PATIL 1, S.S.MOKLE 2 and S.S. WADJE* 1 1 Department of Botany and Horticulture, Yeshwant Mahavidyalaya, Nanded -431602 (M.S) 2 P.G.Department of Chemistry,Yeshwant Mahavidyalaya, Nanded -431602 (MS). Corresponding Author rbp333@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT A Laboratory experiment was conducted to study the effect of potassium humate (salt of humic acid) on seed germination and seedling growth (root length and shoot length) of Triticum aestivum (L.) cv. Lokvan. The seeds of Triticum aestivum were treated with potassium humate at ten different concentrations (from 0.1 to 1.0%) and water served as control. The seeds were then sown on moist blotter papers and percent seed germination, root length and shoot length of Triticum aestivum were recorded. In order to see the effect of potassium humate (1.0%) on vegetative characters of Triticum aestivum, pot experiments were conducted. At the end of tenth day, potassium humate treated seeds showed positive correlation between concentration of potassium humate and percent seed germination with root length and shoot length of Triticum aestivum against water (control). Regarding the vegetative characters of plants, potassium humate treated plants showed more vegetative growth than control plants (untreated plant). KEYWORDS Humic acid, Potassium humate, Percent seed germination, Seedling growth and Vegetative characters. INTRODUCTION Soil organic matter includes the remains of all plants and animals bodies which are fallen on earth surfaces. The final residue obtained form microbial decomposition of organic mater is called as humus and process of formation of humus is called as humification. Humic substances are component of humus. Humic substances are widely distributed over earth surface. Humic substances can be classified into three general categories like humic acid, fulvic acid and humin 1. Potassium humate is the salt of humic acid. Potassium humate 1 is characterized by dark colored, water soluble and alkali insoluble. It was found that the application of humic acid extracts to wheat and soybean crops increased water absorption, respiration and seed germination rate 2,3. Applied humic acids to sand culture of soybean (Glycine max) applied with humic acid increases shoot length, root length and nodule dry weight in response to treatment up to 400 to 800 mg/kg soil 4. Humic acid stimulate shoot growth of various plants when applied either as foliar spray or in nutrient solutions 5. Humic acids extracted peat and from leonardite stimulated plant
growth 6. Regarding vegetative characters of crop plant, humate treatment enhanced overall metabolism of crop plants. Therefore when plants were treated with potassium humate, vegetative characters of Triticum aestivum also were increased. In present paper an attempt was made to discuss the importance of potassium humate on seed germination and seedling growth (root length and shoot length) and vegetative characters of Triticum aestivum. MATERIA ATERIALS AND METHODS The effects of ten different concentrations of potassium humate (0.1 to 1.0%) against control (tap water) in three replications for each crop were tested for seed germination and seedling growth (root length and shoot length) of Triticum aestivum. Seeds of Triticum aestivum cv. Lokvan were collected from field during year 2007. A Four kg seeds of crop plant in small gunny bags at 27±was stored in laboratory for experiments. The seeds were tested on moist blotter methods following ISTA procedure 7. The observation recorded after ten days included percent seed germination (%), root length (cm) and shoot length (cm). Blotter Method A laboratory experiment to screen the percent seed germination for potassium humate was conducted in the Petri dishes of size 10 cm in diameter. The Petri dishes first sterilized by 0.1 percent H 2 Cl 2 solution. A thin layer of cotton was placed at the bottom of Petri dishes and it was covered with filter paper. In each Petri dish 10 seeds were sown and regularly irrigated potassium humate solution. Seed germinated in tap water was saved as control for comparison. The percent seed germination, root length and shoot length was recorded 10 days after sowing. Potassium humate formulation (Stock solution) The commercial product of potassium humate is black, crystalline and water soluble. The stock solution of potassium humate of various concentrations like 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5%, 0.6%, 0.7%, 0.8%, 0.9%, and 1.0% were prepared by dissolving 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0 gm of potassium humate in 100 ml water. The effects of ten different concentrations (0.1 to 1.0 %) of potassium humate were tested on percent seed germination, root length and shoot length of crop plants as these concentrations gave better results. Concentrations above 1.0% were found to be inhibitory. Vegetative characters In order to study the effect of potassium humate (1.0 %) on various vegetative characters of Triticum aestivum (L.) cv. Lokvan, a pot experiment was conducted. Plants were raised in pots and irrigated with potassium humate solution (1.0%) regularly (in case of control plants were irrigated with water). Vegetative characters like height of plant, numbers of leaves per plant, numbers of tillers, number of grains per plant, root length, shoot length and weight of hundred seeds were recorded on 64 th day. RESULT AND DISCUSSION It is clear from the results presented in Table-1 that with the increase in concentrations of potassium humate from 0.1 to 1.0% there was an increase in seeds germination over control in Triticum aestivum (L.). 2
Table-1 Effect of various concentrations of potassium humate (0.1 to 10%) on seed germination and seedling growth of Triticum aestivum (L.) cv. Lokvan on 10 th day. S.No. Potassium Seed germination Root length Shoot length humate (%) (%) (cm) (cm) 1 0.1 80.33 12.1 8.4 2 0.2 86.66 12.3 8.9 3 0.3 90.00 12.4 9.1 4 0.4 90.00 12.6 9.6 5 0.5 90.00 12.8 10.3 6 0.6 90.00 13.4 10.5 7 0.7 90.00 13.7 10.9 8 0.8 90.00 14.8 11.8 9 0.9 90.00 15.2 12.4 10 1.0 90.00 15.4 13.2 20 control 80.00 11.8 8.0 C.D. at 5% 1.63 1.63 1.19 Seeds treated 0.1% potassium humate showed 80.33% seed germination and seeds treated with 1.0% showed 90.00% germination as against 80.00% in water (control). Seeds treated 1.0% potassium humate showed maximum root length (15.4 cm against 11.8 cm in water-control) and shoot length (13.2 cm against 8.0 cm in water- control). Results presented in Table 2 show that there was an increase in all the vegetative characters in treated plants over control (water). Potassium humate solution (1.0%) treated plants showed height of plant 84.06 cm (control-69.42 cm), number of leaves per plants 18.42 (control- 12.02), root length 37.27 cm (control-31.21 cm), number of tillers 6.7 (control-4.9), shoot length 22.03 cm (control-18.00), number of grain per spike (after 100 days) 128.53 (control-90.42) and weight of 100 seed (after 100 days) 62.04 gm (control-56.09 gm). 3
Table- 2 Effect of potassium humate (1.0%) on vegetative characters of Triticum aestivum (L.) cv. Lokvan. (After 64 days) Vegetative Characters Potassium Control Humate (1.0%) (Water) 1 Height of plant (cm) 84.6 69.42 2 Number of leaves per plant 18.42 12.02 3 Root length (cm) 37.27 31.21 4 Number of tillers 6.7 4.9 5 Shoot length (cm) 22.03 18.00 6 Number of grain per spike 128.53 90.42 7 Weight of 100 seed (gm) 62.04 56.09 S.No CONCLUSION characterize humic acid (HA), J. Brazil Thus optimum concentration of potassium Chemical Society, 19:24-28, (2008). humate as regards to seed germination and seedling 2. Smidova M, Effect of sodium humate on growth i.e. root length and shoot length was found swelling and germination of plant roots, J.Biol. to be 1.0%. Higher concentration than 1.0% of Plant, 4:112-118, (1962). potassium humate showed inhibitory effects on 3. Ishwaran V and Chonkar P, Action of sodium percent seed germination, seedling growth and humate and dry matter accumulation of soybean vegetative characters. in saline alkaline soil, In B. Novak et al. Humus Planta, 1971, pp 613-615. 4. Tan K and Tantiwiramannond D, Effect of ACK CKNOWLEDGEMENT humic acid on nodulation and dry matter The authors are grateful to Principal Dr. N. production of soybean, peanut and clover. J. V. Kalyankar for providing laboratory facilities Soil Sci. America., 47: 1121-1124. (1983). and encouragement and M/S. V. Kumar and Sons, 5. Chen Y and Aviad T Effects of humic Aurangabad (M.S) for providing samples of substances on plant growth. J. Soil science of potassium humate. America. Madison, 161-186, (1990). 6. Adani F, Genevini P, Zaccheo P and Zocchi G, REFERENCES The effect of commercial humic acid on tomato plant growth and mineral nutrition, J. Plant nutrition., 21 (31): 561-575, (1998). 1. Solange LM and Rezende MO, Capillary 7. 7. ISTA. International rules of seed testing, Int. Electrophoresis (CE): A powerful tool to Seed Test. Ass., 31:1-152.(1966) 4
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