ENHANCEMENT OF PLANTING VALUE AND STORAGE PERFORMANCE OF DIFFERENT CULTIVARS WITH VARIOUS GERMINABALITY OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max) SEED BY PRE TREATMENT

Soybean (Glycine max) seeds loose viability at a rapid pace under subtropical conditions. The pretreatments viz., poykote, poykote + thiram, polykote + neem cake powder, poltkote + hitron, Royalflo, celomic fluid and vermiwash, were given to three cultivars of soybean seed with high, medium and low vigour to see the seedling performance. Performance was measured in terms of germination first and final count, seedling dry weight and field emergence. These treated seeds were stored in 700 mm gauge polythene and cloth bag and germination percentage were recorded at three months interval upto twelve months. Overall, the effect of pre-sowing treatments was most pronounced in medium vigour seed lot (Bragg). Polymer coating with fungicides viz., polykote + thiram and Royalflo were most effective in enhancing the germination, seedling growth and field emergence, in all the cultivars of soybean. Coating with polymer + thiram or with Royalflo was most effective in retaining germination during storage. Irrespective of the cultivar, germination remained above 70% in these treatments upto 9 months even in cloth bags.