Journal of Tropical Crop Science Vol. 10 No. 1, February 2023 www.j-tropical-crops.com 8 Yuni Nurfana, M. Rahmad Suhartanto, Endah Retno Palupi, Y. Aris Purwanto Ultrafne Bubbles Water priming to improve viability and vigor of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seeds Yuni Nurfana A , M. Rahmad Suhartanto B , Endah Retno Palupi B , Y. Aris Purwanto B A Seed Science and Technology Program, Graduate School, Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia B Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, Graduate School, Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia C Department of Mechanical and Biosystem Engineering, Graduate School, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, IPB University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia *Corresponding author; email: tantosuhartanto63@gmail.com Abstract Priming is a physiological technique of hydration of seed to improve metabolic processes before germination to accelerate germination and seedling growth under normal and stressful conditions. This research is aimed to study the pretreatment using ultra-fne bubble (UFB) water to increase the viability and vigor of seeds before planting (pre-planting) and during storage (pre-storage). This research was conducted at the Laboratory of Seed Quality Testing, IPB University, Indonesia. The research consisted of two experiments, i.e., UFB water priming to increase the viability and vigor of bean seeds and their storability after priming. The frst experiment was arranged using a completely randomized design with a combination of seed lot treatments (L1: initial germination percentage (GP) about 80%, L2: initial GP around 70%, and L3: initial GP around 60%) with priming (P0: no priming/control, P1: soaked in distilled water for 60 minutes, P2: distilled water for 120 minutes, P3: 8 ppm UFB water for 60 minutes, P4: 8 ppm UFB water for 120 minutes, P5: 20 ppm UFB water for 60 minutes, P6: UFB water 20 ppm for 120 minutes). The second experiment was arranged using a nested design with the main factor being the storage room condition and priming as the second factor nested in the main factor. The storage room condition factors consisted of KM: room conditions (temperature 28±5 0 C, RH 73±7%) and AC: air- conditioned room (18±2 0 C, RH 61±7%). The priming factor consisted of two levels, namely P0: without priming and P1: priming with 20 ppm UFB water soaked for 120 minutes. The results showed that priming treatment with UFB water 20 ppm for 120 minutes as a pre-planting treatment could increase the viability of bean seeds, particularly for seeds with low initial viability, and primed bean seeds with an initial viability of approximately 80% were able to retain their viability for 16 weeks of storage in an air- conditioned room. Keywords: germination, pre-planting, pre-storage, seed storability, seed quality Introduction Quality seed is one of the keys to the success of agricultural production. Bean seed (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the essential commercial horticultural crops with high market demand, so good quality seed for planting materials is required. Bean seeds undergo a period of storage before reaching the farmers for planting. Good handling during storage will maintain the storability of the seeds, but the longer the seeds are stored, the seeds will deteriorate or decline so that their viability of the seeds will decrease. The process of seed deterioration can be classifed into chronological decline caused by time factors and physiological decline caused by storage environmental factors. Invigoration is one way to increase seed viability and vigor. Ilyas (2012) stated that invigoration could be in the form of osmoconditioning priming and matriconditioning. Osmoconditioning priming is a pre- planting treatment developed to increase germination. Mohajeri et al. (2016) showed that the invigoration of bean seeds is carried out by immersing the seeds in osmotic solutions such as CaCl 2 , KCl, NaCl, and PEG. The results have shown that beans seeds soaked for 6 hours in CaCl 2 had the highest percentage of germination at 95% while the control was 84%. The research of Yuanasari et al. (2015) exhibited that black soybean seeds that were stored for 22 months in a storage room at a temperature of 12±2ºC with a humidity of ±60% had a germination rate of 76.67%