Performance of chick pea under the influence of gibberellic acid and oxygenated peptone during germination

The experiments were carried out at the Post Graduate Research Center, to study the influence of Gibberellic Acid (50 ppm) and Oxygenated Peptone (1% aqueous solution) on chick pea (Cicer arietinum L. cv. Vijay) during germination by giving pre-sowing soaking treatment for 6 hours using petriplate method. Both the treatments enhanced the germination process. GA treatment was useful to increase shoot length, mobilization efficiency, emergence index, speed of germination and co-efficient of germination while oxygenated peptone showed an upper hand in root length, shoot/root ratio, biomass and vigour index. GA led to comparatively more synthesis of nucleic acids while oxygenated peptone showed more increase in total carbohydrates and soluble protein content. However, the activity of enzymes like amylase, catalase and protease showed upper hand with oxygenated peptone as compared to GA. In fact GA is costlier and can not be used in organic farming as it enters metabolic pathways of plant and alters them. Hence the use of oxygenated peptone is recommended being less expensive and usable under organic farming condition as it does not enter the plant metabolic pathways and yet brings about significant positive effect.