INVIGORATION OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L. CV. NILESH, NMH-51) SEEDS DURING STORAGE BY USING CITRONELLA OIL

摘要

An investigation was carried out on seed potentiation of a maize species by using some selected chemicals. Maize seeds lose viability at a rapid pace under ambient storage condition prevailing in major parts of India. Pretreatment of seeds of a selected maize (Zea mays L. cv. Nilesh, NMH-51) cultivar for 8 hours with Citronella oil (C.oil), prior to artificially induced accelerated ageing (99.5% RH and 32±2℃), for 6 days slowed down the ageing-induced rapid loss of germination. Plants raised from the seeds with such chemical pretreatment showed better performance in terms of percentage of germination, field emergence capacity, root length, shoot length, fresh weight and dry weight of plants. These plants also excelled in having higher amount of chlorophyll, protein, DNA and RNA as well as enhanced activity of catalase along with low activity of amylase enzymes, even in adverse storage condition. Thus, the present work clearly revealed promising effects of Citronella oil (C.oil) in enhancing storage potential and extending viability of Zea mays seeds under artificially induced accelerated ageing condition.