Standardization of biopriming treatments to enhance seed quality in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea)

India’s most significant crop for food and oilseeds is groundnut. A final crop yield requires high-quality seeds with uniform field emergence that happens quickly. One of the key methods for improving the quality of seeds and promoting early crop seedling establishment is seed priming. Treatments for seed priming may aid in healthy crop establishment and prevent yield loss. To improve groundnut seed quality, experiments were conducted to standardize several seed priming treatments using botanicals. Groundnut seeds were soaked for 4, 6, and 8 hours with botanical priming agents viz., custard apple leaf extract, basil leaf extract, and chicory leaf extract at the concentration of 1, 2, and 3% along with hydropriming and control. The results revealed that the seed-to-solution ratio of 1:1 soaked for 6 hours recorded the maximum seed quality characters. Irrespective of soaking duration, seeds primed with holy basil leaf extract @ 2% recorded the maximum seed quality attributes followed by 1% chicory leaf extract outperformed other treatments by recording higher imbibition rate, germination percentage, longest seedling length, maximum dry matter production, and vigor index of groundnut.