Effect of gibberellic acid application on the germination and seedling growth of BARI Hybrid Bhutta-16 under saline condition

Abstract

The study was conducted at Agronomy Laboratory of Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, during August 2022, to assess the germination and seedling growth of BARI Hybrid Bhutta-16 under salinity stress with application of gibberellic acid. The experiment was carried out in a factorial design with two factors: four different concentrations of salt solutions and three different concentrations of gibberellic acid solutions. Salt concentrations were 10 dS/m, 20 dS/m, 30 dS/m and 0 dS/m as control and gibberellic acid concentrations 100 ppm, 150 ppm and 0 ppm as control. Three replications of the experiment were set up using a Completely Randomized Design. Data related to seed germination and seedling growth parameters were collected. Germination and seedling growth parameters decreased with increase in salinity levels but increased with increase in gibberellic acid levels. In case of interaction, there were inconsistent variation in germination parameters; germination percentage, germination capacity, germination energy, germination speed. Seedling growth parameters like root fresh weight and root dry weight showed better results; 436 to 480 mg and 55 to 67 mg, respectively, against different salinity levels with gibberellic acid application. Other parameters like root length, shoot length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and seedling vigor index were found better upto 20 dS/m salinity with 0, 100 and 150 ppm gibberellic acid but in higher salinity (30 dS/m) their performance was not good.

Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 50(2): 99-109, June 2025