Optimizing Rice Seed Priming with Wood Vinegar: A Holistic Evaluation of Germination Energy, Shoot Morphology, and Chlorophyll Content for Resilient Early-Stage Crop Development

The study investigated the effects of seed priming duration and wood vinegar concentration on the germination, emergence, and early seedling growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.) to determine the optimal combination for enhancing early plant development. A factorial experiment was conducted using three priming durations (0, 12, and 24 hours) and five wood vinegar concentrations (control, 1:25, 1:50, 1:75, and 1:100). Results revealed that seed priming for 12 hours (A2) significantly enhanced final germination percentage (86.13%), T90-T10 (31.44), and reduced the time to 50% germination (T50) to 44.57 hours. All wood vinegar treatments performed better than the control, with the 1:50 dilution showing the most consistent benefits. The treatment combination of 12-hour priming with 1:50 wood vinegar (A2B3) resulted in the highest final germination (98%) and emergence (100 %) percentages, and significantly improved seedling vigor traits including shoot and root length, stem diameter, leaf number, and biomass. The highest chlorophyll content was observed in the 24-hour priming treatment. In particular, under nursery and direct-seeding systems, these results imply that combining seed priming with a modest concentration of wood vinegar improves rice seed performance and early development, providing a sustainable and economical method of rice production.