Abstract

Field experiments conducted in summer and winter 1996 seasons to assess the productivity of hardened seeds highlighted significant benefits of seed hardening with prosopis (Prasopis juliflora) (0.5% solution) and pungam leaf extract (Pungamea pinnata) (1.0%) registering increase in field emergence (9%), dry matter production (26.1 % on 30 DAS), plant height at harvest (23.2%) over control. The plants from hardened seeds came to flowering one week earlier than those from nonhardened seeds. The number of sympodia plant, number of boll plant', boll weight, seed weight boll", number of seeds boll" were significantly higher in plants from seeds given seed hardening treatment with 1.0% pungam leaf extract striking an increase of 7.9, 35.2. 29.0 and 18.0% respectively over control in two seasons trials. The seed cotton yield and seed yield were higher by 31.7 and 35.7% respectively in the summer crop and 43.6 and 48.0 % respectively in the winter crop in the same treatment over control. In the resultant seeds better quality vested with the seeds from botanical hardening.

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