Seed Germination and Subsequent Seedling Growth as Influenced by Silica Nanoparticles Invigoration in Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill.)

Soybean is a miracle crop, contains 40% protein and 20% oil. The quality of soybean seeds is very sensitive and prone to adverse environment from harvesting to poor storage conditions (at room temperature), that leads to poor longevity and viability. Therefore, to obtain proper germination of crop, seed treatment is imperative. The investigation was aimed to evaluate the effect of silica nanoparticles (seed vitalizer) on seed germination and seedling growth. Silica nanoparticles have 10-20 nm particle size characterized on the basis of 99.5% trace metal. In the present study, seeds of five cultivars viz; Bhatt, Kalitoor (landraces) and improved varieties- PS-26, PS-1225, PS-1347 were taken and treated with different concentration of silica nanoparticles viz; 800, 1000 and 1500 ppm. The study was conducted under controlled conditions using Complete Randomised Design design. Among different cultivars, land race Kalitoor showed the highest germination percentage followed by PS-26 whereas among different concentration, 1000 ppm of silica nanoparticles treated seed was most effective and achieved the maximum germination percentage, root length, shoot length, seedling length, fresh mass, dry mass, and also the seedling vigor index-I and seedling vigor index-II. Further increase in silica dose showed adverse impact on seedling parameters. The finding of present investigation revealed that landrace Kalitoor has better germination ability and nano-silica @1000 ppm was the most appropriate dose to achieve higher germination and seedling growth of soybean.