EFFECT OF SEED PRE-TREATMENT WITH GROWTH REGULATORS ON SEED YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF COMMON BEANS (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

Abstract

Seed priming is employed for better crop stand and higher yield in a range of crops. In order to evaluate the effect of seed treatments with growth regulators on the yield and yield components of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) lines, a factorial experiment was carried out based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at two years. In this research, pre-treatment (priming) of two red bean (D81083 and KS31169) seeds with growth regulators including salicylic acid (SA) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at four levels (P0:control, distilled water; P1: 0.5 m mol L-1 NAA; P2: 0.7 m mol L-1 SA; P3: combination of SA and NAA hormones at rates of 0.5 and 0.7 m mol L -1 ) were studied. The results showed that the effect of line in all of the characteristics and seed priming with growth regulators in all of the characteristics except to harvest index were significant. The highest number of grains per pod and biological yield (14602 kg ha-1 ) due to growth regulator application was obtained from line D81083 in 0.5 m mol L-1 NAA. Generally, the use of growth regulators as a seed pre-treatment increased the yield and yield components of red beans.