INFLUENCE OF SEED SIZE ON GERMINABILITY AND GRAIN YIELD OF WHEAT (Triticum Aestivum L.) VARIETIES

A field study was carried out at the experimental fields of Agronomy Section, Agriculture Research Institute, Tandojam during Rabi, 2012-13, to investigate the influence of seed size on germ inability and grain yield of wheat varieties. The effect of two seed sizes (Small and Large) was examined against two commercial wheat varieties (Abadgar-93 and Mehran-89) in a three replicated Randomized Complete Block Design. The results revealed that the effect of seed size on seed germination (%), plant height (cm), number of tillers plant-1, spike length (cm), number of grains spike-1, seed index (1000 grains weight, g) and grain yield (kg ha-1) was significant (P<0.05), while non-significant (P>0.05) on biological yield (kg ha-1); while the effect of varieties was significant (P<0.05) on plant height (cm), spike length (cm), number of grains spike-1, seed index (1000 grains weight, g), biological yield (kg ha-1) and grain yield (kg ha-1) and non-significant (P>0.05) on seed germination (%) and number of tillers plant-1. However, the interactive effect of variety x seed size was significant (P<0.05) for seed index (1000 grains weight, g) and grain yield (kg ha-1) and non-significant (P>0.05) for seed germination (%), plant height (cm), number of tillers plant-1, spike length (cm), number of grains spike-1 and biological yield (kg ha-1). Wheat variety Mehran-89 showed superior agronomic performance over Abadgar-93 with 93.71 (%) germination, 96.75 (cm) plant height, 6.03 tillers plant-1, 11.07 (cm) spike length, 41.96 grains spike-1, 42.99 (g) seed index, 10434 kg ha-1 biological yield and 4956 (kg ha-1 ) grain yield. The crop sown with large size seeds showed remarkably better agronomic performance with 95.29 (%) germination, 96.61 (cm) plant height, 6.40 tillers plant-1, 11.44 (cm) spike length, 42.65 grains spike-1, 42.80 (g) seed index, 10241 (kg ha-1) biological yield and 4857.10 (kg ha-1) grain yield. It was concluded that sowing wheat with large size seeds was remarkably beneficial with most promising agronomic performance (4857.10 kg ha-1 grain yield) as compared to small size seeds (4400.70 kg ha-1 grain yield). The interactive effect of Mehran x large size seed surpassed rest of the interactions with maximum grain yield of 5260 (kg ha-1). Keywords: Wheat, Influence, Seed size, Germinablity and Grain yield.