Role of Bio-formulation on Enhancement of Seed Quality and Yield in Garden Pea (Pisum sativum L.)

A research work was conducted at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during rabi season of 2021-2022 to evaluate the effect of different bio-formulations on enhancement of seed quality and yield in garden pea. The laboratory analysis were conducted in Complete Randomized Design for seed vigour characteristics whereas the field experiment was laid out in factorial Randomized Block Design for assessing plant growth and yield attributing characters. The experiment involved two varieties of garden pea viz., Arkel and DS-10, each having seven treatments with three replications. The treatments comprised of T1- untreated control, T2- Hydropriming, T3- seed priming with Trichoderma viride @ 5g/kg, T4- PSB @ 10g/kg, T5- Rhizobium @ 20 g/kg, T6- PSB @ 10g/kg + Rhizobium @ 20 g/kg and T7- Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 10 g/kg. Before sowing, the seeds of both the varieties were soaked in water for 4 hours and bio-primed with the above mentioned bio-formulations. The results revealed significant difference amongst the treatments for most of the plant growth promoting and yield attributing characters. T6 exhibited highest performance for most of the characters. Varietal performance of DS-10 was found better than Arkel. Laboratory observations also recorded the maximum germination (%) and seed vigour index I & II in the T6 treatment. However, significant increase in germination related characters and early seedling growth was exhibited by all the treatments over the control. The experiment thus revealed that although all bio-formulations viz., PSB, Rhizobium, Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescens alone and in combination could improve seed quality, seed yield & yield attributing characters but the best performance could be achieved in T6 i.e. by applying PSB@ 10g/kg + Rhizobium @ 20 g/kg. Therefore, it could be suggested that seed treatment with bio-formulations should be done for better seed production and seed yield in garden pea.