Effect of Gibbrellic Acid, Kinetin and Potassium Nitrate on Seed Germination of Papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady

Seed germination is the most important aspect for raising the nursery for successful seedling production of papaya. The research was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda (Punjab) during 2023 to evaluate the impact of different pre-soaking chemicals on seed germination and vigour of papaya seedling. The experiment was laid out Randomized block design with three replications and included ten different treatments., namely T1 (Control- double distilled water), T2 (GA3 @ 50 ppm), T3 (GA3 @ 100 ppm), T4 (GA3 @ 200 ppm), T5 (Kinetin @ 25 ppm), T6 (Kinetin @ 50 ppm), T7 (Kinetin @ 75 ppm), T8 (KNO3 @ 500 ppm), T9 (KNO3 @ 1000 ppm), T10 (KNO3 @ 1500 ppm), were soaked for 24 hours. The seeds were sown in a blend of sand, soil and vermiculite with a ratio of 2:1:1 and maintained under controlled polyhouse condition. Among the treatments, T3 (GA3 @100 ppm) demonstrated the most rapid seed germination, highest percentage of germination (56.20) and maximum survival percentage (53.44) and the T4 (GA3 @ 200 ppm) resulted in the lowest days to first emergence of seedling (3.66), maximum plant height (32.33), maximum number of leaves (8.66) and highest girth of seedling (5.86) at 60 days after sowing. In Conclusion, the most effective approach for enhancing seed germination in papaya involved pre-treating the seeds with GA3 @ 200 ppm in var. Red lady.