Seed quality and vigour in relation to nodal position and harvesting stage of okra under mid hills of North-western Himalayas

Abstract

The studies on quality of seed and its vigour were conducted during the kharif season of 2006 and 2007 with the okra cv. VL Bhindi 1 in three replicates. The fruits from the lower (1st to 3rd) and middle (4th to 8th) node positions at undried brown and dried brown stage produced the best quality seeds. Maximum germination and vigour was exhibited by the seeds obtained from fruits positioned at middle nodes, closely followed by seeds collected from the lower portion of the plant. However, seeds obtained from the upper fruits showed poor seed yield and quality. The number of seeds per fruit significantly varied with the fruit position (65.93 to 45.63 in 2006 and 66.05 to 47.2 in 2007). The harvesting stage and its interaction with fruit position were found non significant with respect to no. of seeds/ fruit. During both the years, an inverse relationship was observed with respect to dead and hard seeds percentage, seeds from farther fruits and mature fruits of turning stage produced more dead and hard seeds. Results revealed that reasonably good seedling length and vigour index were observed with seeds obtained from lower and middle fruits (P1 & P2) and undried brown to dry brown fruits (H2 & H3) and their interactions (P2H3, P1H3, P2H2 & P1H2).