Efficacy of Plant and Chemical Materials on Quality of Okra Seed Stored under Natural Ageing Conditions

Abstract

The efficacy of four organic crude plant materials, three in organic chemical sand hydration - dehydration seed treatments on the maintenance of germination, seedling vigour and seed longevity of stored freshly harvested okra seeds were evaluated under natural ageing in ambient conditions of a Seed Store for 180 days. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, mean separation and PROBIT modeling. Among the treatments, significant differences were observed for seed germination and seedling vigour. Seeds dressed with apron-plus and crude ocimum leaf powder gave better seed germination with an average improvement of between 10 and 12% over control t while other seed treatments gave significant higher values above their respective controls. A differential response was observed between the two varieties for the two traits with NH99/25 retaining consistently higher values at each storage time. On the storage effect, seed dressed with ocimum and apron-plus powders were the most effective in storage as it consistently maintained superior seed germination over 180 days of storage while ocimum and mango leaf treated seeds consistently retained higher seedling vigour at each storage time than other treatments. Pre-storage treatments of freshly harvested okra seeds with fine ocimum leaf powders (active ingredient: linalool) at 10g per 100g seed is there for eadvocated for overall maintenance of vigour and germination of okra seed. The PROBIT modeling result indicated that seed storage life of 16 to 19 months was estimated with mango leafpowder, ocimum leafpower and apron-plus treatment in both varieties while the lowest storage life of 11-13 months was derived with controls. The use of plant crude materials may be considered as effective seed storage management approach.