Influence of Salicylic Acid and Gibberelic Acid on Germination and Growth of Bitter Gourd, Momordica charantia L.

Aim: Uniform and rapid germination and growth is a major barrier to successful crop production of bitter gourd, a major summer vegetable of Bangladesh. Seed priming with different signaling molecules can efficiently confer this problem. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explore the potentiality of different signaling molecules such as salicylic acid (SA) and gibberelic acid (GA3) to increase germination and growth of bitter gourd.

Place and Duration of the Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, from September-October, 2022.

Methodology: The bitter gourd seeds were soaked in 1mM, 2mM and 3mM GA3, and 3mM, 6mM and 9mM SA solutions for 1 hour. The untreated seeds were used as control. Seeds were germinated in petri dishes and data on germination was collected. Then seedlings were transplanted to pot after 7 days to record growth parameters at 15th day of establishment.

Results: The experiment's findings indicated that lower concentrations of SA and GA3 had a beneficial effect, however greater levels significantly reduced the bitter gourd's ability to germinate and develop in comparison to the control. Findings of the study showed priming concentrations of 3mM SA, 6mM SA, and 1mM GA3, markedly improved the germination percentage, shoot and root length, seedling vigour, and fresh and dry weight of the shoot and root, RWC of bitter gourd.

Conclusion: Pretreatment with SA and GA3 was observed to be relatively more efficient in increasing germination of bitter gourd compared with control. Overall, this study suggests that bitter gourd seed priming 3mM SA, 6mM SA, and 1mM GA3 can improve germination and growth.