Effect of seed programming on photosynthetic pigments, biochemical constituents and mineral nutrients in petunia (Petunia hybrida Hort. Vilm-Andr)

Petunia (Petunia hybrida Hort. Vilm-Andr) is popularly grown in the landscapes of UAE. In order to standardize a seed programming technique to induce drought tolerance, a three stage programming of seeds involving imbibitions, osmopriming and acclimation have been developed. Triadimefon, a derivative of triazole, at 25 and 50 ppm was combined with potassium chloride as osmopriming agent and acclimation done at 28-32°C. The plants raised from programmed seeds were subjected to two frequencies of irrigation; daily and once in three days. Photosynthetic pigments, free phenols, amino acids, proline and total sugars were the parameters used to monitor the efficiency of protection against induced moisture stress by the wider frequency of irrigation. However, the degree of protection by triadimefon was enhanced if the seeds were subjected to imbibitions, osmopriming and acclimation. In addition to protection against moisture stress, the programming techniques influenced the uptake of major elements like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but the general trend with nitrogen was that the uptake pattern is same except that triadimefon and KCl slightly enhanced the uptake of nitrogen increasing the tissue concentration. When the interaction effect is considered 50 ppm of triadimefon with KCl and irrigation once in three days showed significantly high amount of phosphorus (0.8512%).