~ 563 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2020; 9(5): 563-567 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 www.phytojournal.com JPP 2020; 9(5): 563-567 Received: 11-07-2020 Accepted: 09-08-2020 Kavitha S Department of Plant Genetic Resources, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Srimathi P Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: Kavitha S Department of Plant Genetic Resources, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India Influence of seed priming with micro-nutrients followed by rhizobium seed coating on seed vigour, crop growth and seed yield in redgram cv. VBN 3 Kavitha S and Srimathi P DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/phyto.2020.v9.i5h.12288 Abstract Redgram is important pulses crop grown throughout the country, gives low seed yield mainly due to poor management. Development of suitable technology is essential to enhance productivity. Seed priming is one such effective technology to achieve high vigour, better stand establishment and yield. The current study aimed to study the micronutrient seed priming and rhizobium coating on crop growth and seed yield in redgram. Seeds were primed with 10 different micronutrient solutions, evaluated for its quality parameters to find out suitable seed priming technique. Seeds from two best performing priming treatments were coated with rhizobium and evaluated for its production potential. Seed priming with 0.5% ZnSO4 recorded higher germination (86%) and vigour index (3621) than control under laboratory experiment. Field experiments revealed that seeds primed with 0.5% ZnSO4 and coated with rhizobium @ 30 g per kg of seeds improved the seed yield by 18.8% over control. Keywords: Redgram, priming, coating, seed quality, yield Introduction Red gram (Cajanus cajan L.) are the important pulses crop, grown throughout the country. The crops are resistant to adverse climatic conditions and improve soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. It has been reported that the crop produces equivalent to 22.10 kg of N/ha., which has been estimated to be a supplement of 59 thousand tonnes of urea annually. The pulse ‘Red gram’ play an important role in the Indian diet, as it contains vegetable protein about 22% which is almost three times that of cereals and other minerals and vitamins. Red gram is the second important pulse crop in India covering an area of about 53.87 lakh ha with the production of 45.99 lakh tones and productivity of 854 kg/ha, respectively. In Tamil Nadu, red gram is grown in an area of 41,130 hectares with the production of 370 MT and productivity of 1,093 kg/ha, respectively. Redgram gives low seed yield mainly due to poor management and low soil fertility. Nitrogen due to leaching and volatilization and phosphorous due to fixation may not be available adequately at flowering and pod formation stages of crop and result in shedding flowers and pods. The seed is one of the major inputs in agriculture and decides the future of crops. The rationale for pre-plant seed treatment is to mobilize the seeds to own resources and to augment them with external resources to maximum improvement in stand establishment and yield. Priming is the method used to improve stand establishment in several crops. Seed priming is a process in which seeds are imbibed either in water or in osmotic solution or nutrient solution, a combination of solid matrix carrier and water in specific proportion followed by drying before radical emergence. Seed priming is an effective technology to enhance rapid and uniform emergence and to achieve high vigor, leading to better stand establishment and yield (Harris et al., 2007) [2] . Kulkarni and Chittapur (2003) [5] reported that pre-sowing seed treatment with water, mineral solution viz., CaCl 2 , ZnSO 4 , Cobalt sulphate, K 2 SO 4 , CuSO 4 , Sodium molybdate, Boric acid, and MnSO 4 or growth regulators viz., ascorbic acid, kinetin, benzyl adenine, gibberellic acid and cycocel alone and in combination found to speed up the germination process, increased the germination rate, seedling vigor, improved the resistance for water and salinity stress and increased the crop yields. Seed coating with biofertilizer increased plant growth and yield in many crops. Vikas Gupta and Thomas Abraham (2003) [19] reported that Rhizobium inoculation coupled with 30 kg S/ha increased the dry matter accumulation, nodulation, and grain yield in soybean.