Effect of seed hardening on growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of seed hardening with various chemicals on biochemical components and yield in chickpea. (Cicer arietinum. L).during Rabi 2007,under rain fed conditions. Significantly higher seed yield was recorded in seed hardening with CaCl 2-2% (26.32q per ha.) followed by Cycocel-1000ppm (23.54 q per ha.) and succinic acid 20ppm (23.44 q per ha.) as compare to control (19.04q per ha.). The increased seed yield in seed hardening with CaCl 2-2% may be attributed to increase in the total chlorophyll, chl-a. and chl-b chlorophyll stability index, proline content ,relative water content, coupled with lower of specific leaf area. as compare to control. Thus It indicates that seed hardening modifies the physiological and biochemical nature of seeds so as to get the characters that are favorable for drought tolerance which more so with CaCl 2-2%. Further, It is also evident from the results that the increased seed yield in seed hardening with CaCl 2-2% is associated with the increased morpho-physiological traits like plant height ,Number of leaf lets, leaf dry matter and total dry matter accumulation, leaf area per plant and Harvest index.