Effect of polymer seed coating with pendimethalin on germination percentage and growth characters of aerobic rice

Abstract

Weeds are the major constraints in aerobic rice cultivation which provides stronger competition for essential growth factors. As one of the weed control techniques, we used polymer seed coating with herbicide as a seed treatment before sowing as an alternative to pre-emergence application of herbicide. The present investigation was carried to study the effect of polymer seed coating with pendimethalin on germination percentage and growth characters of rice in Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The experiment comprised of pot culture studies and germination test. Initially the seed were treated with polymer @ 3ml/kg of seed, this base layer provided a surface for adhesion of herbicide and added the pendimethalin with different concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 kg a.i./ha. The results revealed that Polymer seed coating with pendimethalin had negative effect on emergence of paddy seeds due to its phytotoxicity and the seed coating with polymer alone does not have any effect on the emergence and development of rice.