Effect of seed priming on fodder quantity and quality in fodder maize (Zea mays L.)

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the best fodder crops in the world due to its fast growing and high biomass production capacities. The growth and development of maize plants depend upon various factors like initial seedling vigour, conversion of photosynthates into biomass, duration of vegetative phase etc. To understand the impact of seed priming on initial seedling vigor, fodder yield and fodder quality like crude fiber content, we primed the seeds of fodder maize cv African tall and studied the field performance during Rabi, 2022-23. The seeds were primed with hydropriming (T1), NaCl (T2), osmopriming (T3), hormonal priming with GA3 (T4) alongwith control. Our experimental results showed that the hormonal priming have shown a significant impact on improving the plant growth parameters like field emergence (91%), plant height at 30 DAS (58 cm), 60 DAS (218 cm) and 90 DAS (274 cm), crop stand establishment (72%), green fodder yield (56.84 kg/plot), dry biomass yield (30.61 kg/plot), No. of cobs/plot (149), seed yield per plot (8.74 kg/plot), crude fiber content (26.35%) and harvest index (50.96) over other treatments.