Abstract

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study the effect of different concentrations (Control, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) of distillery spentwash on seed germination, root length, shoot length and vigour index in some dry land crops viz., Maize (Super 900M), Sunflower (Hybrid 3322), Redgram (local), White sorghum (APK 1), Red sorghum (local), Cumbu (COCu 9) and Groundnut (VRI 2). The distillery spentwash did not show any inhibitory effect on seed germination at low concentration. The spentwash at a higher concentration reduced the seed germination. But up to 10% concentration the distillery spentwash markedly improved the seed germination and seedling growth in all crops. Thus, the distillery spentwash can be used safely after proper dilution as substitute for chemical fertilizer to the crop plants.

Keywords: Spentwash, dry land crops, germination, vigour index