Efficacy of different pre-sowing treatments on seed germination and growth of Karonda (Carissa carandas L.)

Introduction

Karonda is an important minor indigenous underexploited fruit crop of India. It has recently attained importance as an arid zone horticulture crop because of its hardy nature and its nutritious fruits. It is popularly known as "Bengal currant" or "Christ's Thorn". It belongs to family Apocynaceae with chromosome number 2n = 22. There are about 30 species in genus the Carissa being native of tropics and subtropics of Asia, Africa, Australia and China (Arif et al., 2016) [3] . Major natural areas of occurrence of karonda have been observed in the states of Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab (Singh et al., 2014) [60] . Karonda is suitable for growing throughout subtropical and tropical climatic zones of India having commercial and medicinal value. It grows up to a height of 3-6 metres with dark green elliptic leaves, white purple or nearly black colour fruit when ripe. It is a very hardy and grown successfully on a wide range of soils, including poor soils of arid and semi-arid regions where others fruit crops fail to grow (Hasmah et al., 2013) [18] . Fruits are generally harvested at immature stage for vegetable purpose, while fully ripen fruits are consumed fresh or processed (Malik et al., 2010) [30] . The dried fruits are good source of iron (39.10 mg/100 g), pectin and contain fair amount of vitamin C. Fruits are used in preparation of jelly, jam, syrup, murabba and chutney (Kumar et al., 2007) [27] . The unripe fruits yield milky white latex which can be used in preparing chewing gum and rubber. The fruits are traditionally used in the treatments of malaria, epilepsy, nerve disorder, relieve of pain and headache, colds, itches and leprosy (Rahmatullah et al., 2009) [49] . When ripe they become sweet and rich in carbohydrates, pectins, minerals, especially iron and vitamin C. The unripe fruit is sour and astringent and which is used for making pickles and chutneys. They are used in place of cherry for decoration of sweets and pastries. The ripe fruit is sweet, cooling, appetiser and antiscorbutic and is useful in controlling burning sensation, skin diseases, scabies, pruritus (Imran et al., 2012) [22] and particularly suitable for tarts and puddings. It is also used in curing anaemia. Karonda is very hardy and drought-tolerant plant and best suited as a live protective fence due to the presence of axillary spines and formation of profuse leaves on crowded branches. It has excellent potential to be used for horticultural plantations in marginal and wastelands, owing to its hardy and xerophytic nature with wide adaptability to saline sodic soils with pH up to 10 (Bankar et al., 1994 ; Chundawat, 1995) [4,13] . The juvenile plants can also be used in the making of beautiful ornamental hedges (Sharma and Banyal, 2010) [56] . The profuse branching in karonda roots helps in binding the soil and minimises soil erosion. The fruit type is berry and is formed in clusters of approximately 3-10 fruits. The shape of the fruit is ovoid to ellipsoid, coloured with reddish pulp on the skin and lighter near the seed. At different stages of growth, karonda fruit can be pinkish white or pinkish red. Green-fruited, white fruits with pink blush and dark purple-fruited cultivars are the three categories used to classify cultivated varieties (Chadha, 2009) [10] . The plant exhibits wide genetic variability due to cross-pollination, leading to differences in fruit size, shape, and colour. Based on fruit colour, three types exist i.e. green, pink, and white; while based on taste, fruits can be sweet or sour (Verma and Sahu, 2018) [65] . Leaves are opposite, small, ovate and shiny. Flowers are white in colour produced in terminal cyme. It is sometimes grown as an ornamental plant due to its beautiful cherry like fruits. Though the fruits are being used for different purposes, it

has not yet been exploited on a commercial scale. As the crop is highly cross pollinated, large variability exists in natural population. It is commercially propagated by seeds, but seeds are quite hard with low germination. One major challenge in karonda cultivation is poor seed germination due to its hard seed coat, making commercial propagation difficult (Patil et al., 2019) [45] Seeds are recalcitrant and are relatively high in moisture content and possess a characteristic feature of losing their viability within 4-5 weeks. Hence seeds of karonda should be sown just after extraction from fruits. The germination percentage and seedling growth are affected by pre-sowing seed treatments in different fruit crops. To get higher and proper germination, seed require special treatments like scarification, soaking in water, growth regulators, concentrated acid solution etc. which helps in promotion of early and higher percentage of seed germination with healthy and vigorous seedling. For example, water soaking of seeds helps soften the seed coats, remove inhibitors, and reduce the time required for germination, thereby increasing germination percentages (Bhavya et al., 2017) [5] . Plant growth regulators like gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) enhance the germination, growth, and survival of seedlings. GA 3 weakens the seed coat, allowing the radicle to break through. It plays a crucial role in two stages of germination: initial enzyme induction and activation of the reserve food mobilizing system, which helps enhance germination (Palepad et al., 2017) [37] . GA 3 also plays a significant role in increasing plant height and girth due to increased cell division and elongation (Nimbalkar et al., 2012) [35] . The application of potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) as a seed priming agent has demonstrated potential to improve seed performance by alleviating dormancy and stimulating metabolic processes essential for germination (Gul et al., 2017; Mohammed et al., 2021) [17,32] . Potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) enhances germination by facilitating water uptake and activating enzymes involved in the early stages of seed metabolism (Yu et al., 2017) [66] . Thiourea has successfully forced germination by strongly neutralizing the inhibitors present in the seed and increasing cytokinin activity, thereby overcoming the seed coat's inhibiting effect (Hore and Sen, 1994) [20] . Therefore, the objective of present study was to improve the seed germination with standardization of presowing treatments for faster production of nursery plants of karonda.

Materials and Methods

The present investigation on "Efficacy of Different Presowing Treatments on Seed Germination and Growth of Karonda (Carissa carandas L.) plant" was conducted during the years 2023-24 and 2024-25 at Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur in submountainous region of Punjab which is situated between 32°3′ N latitude, 75°22′ E longitude and has an altitude of about 257 m from mean sea level having humid subtropical and dry winter climate. The submountain zone of Punjab (Kandi region) features hilly topography with shiwalik foothills, undulating terrains, and deep, coarse-textured sandy loam to silt loam coarse-textured soils.

Planting material

Karonda (8-10 years old plants) plants grown in the orchard of Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur, were selected for this experiment on the basis of their uniformity in appearance, growth habit, and being free from visual symptoms of pests and disease occurrence.

Experimental design

The experiment was performed in a one-way analysis of variance in Completely Randomised Block Design (CRBD) with three replications.

Seed treatments and sowing

Karonda seeds were extracted carefully from the freshly harvested fruits. The seeds were washed with water to remove the mucilaginous covering over the seed surface. The seeds were shade dried and then subjected to different seed treatments for one hour viz. gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) (250, 500 & 1000 ppm), potassium nitrate (KNO 3 ) (1.0, 1.5 & 2.0%), thiourea (1.0, 1.5 & 2.0%), water soaking (24, 48 & 72 hours) and control (sown immediately after extraction without any treatment). After treatments, seeds were sown in polythene bags of size of 20x25cm, previously filled with potting mixture of soil + sand + vermicompost: cocopeat(1:1:1:1) medium by following recommended nursery management practices.

Observations recorded

The various observation i.e. days to germination initiation, days to complete germination, germination percentage, plant height, plant diameter, fresh weight of stem, dry weight of stem, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf breadth, fresh weight of leaf, dry weight of leaf, primary root number, secondary root number, tertiary root number, primary root length, secondary root length, tertiary root length, thick root diameter, fresh weight of root, dry weight of root and survival percentage were recorded.

Statistical analysis

The recorded data were statistically analysed by using oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Completely Randomised Design (CRBD) as suggested by Gomez and Gomez (2010) [16] . Experimental data were statistically analysed using SPSS-30 software.

Results and Discussion

Days taken to germination initiation, germination completion and germination percentage

From Table 1, it has been reported that karonda seeds treated with GA 3 1000 ppm and planted in garden soil + sand + vermicompost: cocopeat (1:1:1:1) medium recorded the minimum days taken for germination initiation (7.52 days), germination completion (16.02) with maximum germination (96.25%). But maximum days taken for germination initiation (30.52 days), germination completion (52.61) and minimum germination (40.35%) were observed in control. Similarly, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] reported minimum days to germination in aonla seeds treated with GA 3 750 ppm. In the current study, karonda seeds treated with GA 3 1000 ppm emerged noticeably earlier may be due to gibberellic acid, which is crucial for encouraging enzyme activity during germination. GA₃ is known to promote the production of α-amylase, which breaks down stored starch into simple sugars that provide the energy needed for physiological and metabolic processes (Palepad et al., 2017; Hota et al., 2018) [37,21] . The reason for the highest germination in GA 3 treated seeds might be that GA 3 directly relieves embryos from dormancy by encouraging protein synthesis, elongating coleoptiles and leaves, and aiding in the synthesis of ethylene. This ethylene promotes seed germination by inducing the synthesis of hydrolases, particularly amylase. These factors might have contributed to faster germination by suppressing inhibitors and improved enzymatic responses (Stewart and Freebairn, 1969) [62] . Similarly, Devkate (2025) [15] reported that aonla seeds treated with GA 3 750 ppm taken minimum days to germination with maximum germination. Sonkar et al., (2025) [61] also reported that jamun seeds treated with GA₃ at 200 ppm demonstrated the earliest initiation of germination, shortest time to achieve 50% germination with highest germination percentage. Likewise, Krishna et al., (2024) [26] observed maximum seed germination of firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm. Bordoloi et al., (2025) [6] also reported that soaking of jamun seeds in 500 ppm GA 3 was most effective for better germination percentage. Similarly, seed treatment with GA 3 200 ppm performed best in terms of minimum days taken for germination and maximum germination percentage in sweet orange cultivar Malta (Rawat et al ., 2023) [51] , guava Nagar et al., (2025) [34] , custard apple (Dahayat et al., 2025) [14] and jack fruit(Mithlesh et al., 2025) [31] .Likewise, Qadri et al., (2021) [48] reported that rough lemon seeds treated with GA 3 400 ppm grown in sand, silt and leaf manure mixture media showed maximum seed germination.

Plant height and diameter

Highest plant height (55.42 cm) and diameter (5.95 mm) were also recorded by the karonda seeds soaked in GA 3 1000 ppm solution and the lowest values for these measurements were recorded in control treatment (Table 1). The enhanced seedling height in GA 3 treated seeds might be attributed to gibberellic acid role in promoting vegetative growth through increased osmotic nutrient uptake, cell multiplication, and elongation (Shweta, 2022) [58] . This aligns with the findings of work conducted in custard apple (Lawhale et [28,43,52,47] . Similarly, Bordoloi et al., (2025) [6] noted soaking of jamun seeds in GA 3 500 ppm was most effective for better seedling height and highest stem girth. This increase of seedling length in the treatment treated with gibberellic acid is due to gibberellins are well known for inter nodal cell elongation, thereby increased the seedling length. The application of growth regulator increases the seedling height and such effect might be due to increase in photosynthetic activity and also enhancement in the mobilization of photosynthates and change in membrane permeability (Shukla et al., 1997) [57] . Gibberellic acid 250 ppm treated kagzi lime have maximum seedling length as reported by Kiran et al., (2024) [25] . Likewise, rough lemon seeds treated with GA 3 400 ppm grown in sand, silt and leaf manure mixture media showed highest plant height and stem diameter as reported by Qadri et al., (2021) [48] . Likewise, Krishna et al., (2024) [26] reported maximum shoot length and shoot diameter in firethorn plants raised from GA 3 150 ppm treated seeds. Similarly, maximum plant height and girth were noticed in aonla seeds treated with GA 3 750 ppm (Devkate et al., 2025) [15] . Likewise, Bordoloi et al., (2025) [6] reported highest seedling length and stem girth in jamun seeds treated with GA 3 500 ppm. Jagtap et al., (2024) [23] also reported GA 3 250 ppm shown best performance of papaya in growth parameters such as shoot height and stem diameter. Likewise, seed treatment GA 3 200 ppm resulted maximum seedling height and stem diameter in sweet orange cultivar malta (Rawat et al., 2023) [51] , guava (Nagar et al., 2025) [34] , custard apple (Dahayat et al., 2025) [14] and jackfruit (Mithlesh et al., 2025) [31] .

Fresh and dry weight of stem

The result of the present investigation indicated that fresh and dry weight of stem were significantly influenced by GA 3 (Table 1). The fresh weight (38.65 gm) and dry weight (27.36 gm) of stem were found maximum in GA 3 1000 ppm treated seeds of karonda as compared to rest of treatments. Similarly, Singh and Kaur (2021) [59] reported that aonla cultivar Chakaiya seeds treated with GA 3 500 ppm yielded plants with maximum fresh and dry weight of shoot. The increase in fresh weight and dry weight of shoot with GA 3 treatment might be due to overall growth of the seedling and increased rate of photosynthesis that led to the overall assimilation and redistribution of photosynthates within the seedling and hence, resulted in higher fresh weight of shoot. This seems to be due to the effect of mobilization of water and nutrients transported at higher rate which might have promoted more production of photosynthetic products and translocated them to various plant parts which might have resulted in better growth of seedlings and hence, more fresh and dry weight. The results are in close conformity with findings in papaya (Pratibha et al., 2015) [46] , mango (Muralidhara et al., 2015) [33] , custard apple (Parmar et al., 2016) [41] and tamarind (Rajendrakumar, 2017) [50] . Similarly, Rawat et al., (2023) [51] noted that sweet orange cultivar Malta seeds treated with GA 3 200 ppm resulted into maximum shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight. This seems to be the effect of mobilization of water and nutrients transported at higher rate which might have promoted more production of photosynthetic product and translocated them to various plant parts which might have resulted in better growth of the seedlings and hence, more fresh and dry weight of shoot (Brain, 1954; Shanmugavelu, 1966) [8,55] . The promising effect of GA 3 on fresh weight of roots might be due to the acceleration in the translocation and assimilation of auxins, the assimilation and redistribution of materials in plants cause better growth and vegetative characters which enhance the growth attributes (Pandey et al., 2011) [30] . GA 3 might have also increased the auxin level in the roots which induces tap root length and number of secondary and fibrous roots through stimulation of more root initiation, more nutrient uptake and root cell elongation which results in more fresh and dry weight. Firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm resulted in maximum shoot fresh and dry weight Krishna et al., (2024) [26] . Similarly, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] noted maximum fresh and dry weight of shoot were observed in GA 3 750 ppm treated aonla seeds. Likewise, Bordoloi et al., (2025) [6] reported maximum plant fresh and dry weight in jamun seeds treated with 500 ppm GA 3 .

Number of leaves, leaf length and leaf breadth

The highest number of leaves (60.25), leaf length (6.15 cm) and leaf breadth (4.52 cm) were noticed in the seed treatment with GA 3 1000 ppm as against the lowest values of number of leaves (13.26), leaf length (3.02) and leaf breadth (2.05) were observed in the treatment control (Table 1). Gibberellic acid treatment accelerates photosynthetic carbon assimilation by raising chlorophyll content and improving stomatal conductance. As a result, more photosynthates are synthesized and distributed to growing tissues like leaves. This increase in available energy and building blocks enables faster leaf primordia initiation, faster leaf expansion, and higher leaf area. Increase in number of leaves might be due to the maximum height of seedlings under treatment GA 3 1000 ppm possibly due to the induced cell division and cell growth by the movement of gibberellic acid to the shoot apex which increase the number of young leaves (Salisbury and Ross, 1988) [53] . This aids in the stimulation of the plants physiological process and chemical stimulatory action which form new leaves at faster rate as suggested by Shaban (2010) [54] . The maximum leaf area might be due increased in leaf length and width, which ultimately increased in leaf area of the plant. Likewise, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] reported maximum number of leaves in GA 3 750 ppm treated aonla seeds. Similarly, maximum number of leaves reported in plants raised from firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm (Krishna et al., 2024) [26] and also highest number of leaves and leaf area were noted in jamun seeds treated with GA 3 500 ppm (Bordoloi et al., 2025) [6] . Likewise, Jagtap et al., (2024) [23] reported GA 3 250 ppm treated seeds of papaya reported maximum number of leaves. Likewise, maximum number of leaves and leaf area reported in sweet orange cultivar Malta (Rawat et al., 2023) [51] , guava (Nagar et al., 2025) [34] , custard apple Dahayat et al., (2025) [14] , jackfruit (Mithlesh et al., 2025) [31] plants with seed treatment with GA 200 ppm.

Leaf fresh weight and leaf dry weight

Maximum fresh (0.52 gm) and dry weight (0.27 gm) of leaf was obtained in seed treatment GA 3 1000 ppm as compared to rest of the treatments (Table1). Similarly, Papaya seeds cultivar Barwani Red treated with GA 3 200 ppm had highest fresh and dry weight of leaves (Anjanawe et al., 2013) [2] . Likewise, application of GA 3 100 ppm to Bougainvillea, Ixora and Rose cuttings gave higher value leaf fresh and dry weight (Hedayatullah, 2012) [19] . The fresh and dry weight of leaves of seedlings obtained from pre-soaked GA 3 seeds might be due to the fact that more number of leaves with GA 3 treatments and it improve the rate of photosynthesis and lead to more accumulation of photosynthates (Alvin, 1960) [1] . Similarly, Dahayat et al., (2025) [14] reported GA 3 200 ppm treated custard apple seeds resulted highest values of fresh and dry weight of leaves. Likewise, GA 3 50 ppm treated seeds of guava yielded maximum fresh weight and dry weight of seedling (Brijwal and Kumar, 2014) [9] .

Primary, secondary and tertiary root number

From the table 2, it has been noted that karonda seeds treated with GA 3 1000 ppm have highest primary (33.56), secondary (75.32) and tertiary (150.21) root numbers. While the lowest values of said parameters were registered under control treatment. The seed treatment with GA 3 1000 ppm increases the number of secondary roots per seedling resulting in better growth because auxins are translocated and assimilated. The maximum number of roots per seedling might be due to the mobilization of stored nutrients within the plant and enhanced supply of soluble carbohydrates to the growing embryo, which was caused by an increase in aamylase activity along with rapid and uniform emergence might have resulted in the root growth parameters. The increase in number of secondary roots could be due to gibberellic acid which causes cell division, supplying photosynthates to root meristem. Similarly, Kiran et al., (2024) [25] reported that maximum number of secondary roots were also observed in the pre-sowing seed treatment of GA 3 250 ppm to Kagzi lime. Boricha et al., (2020) [7] also observed similar results in guava and Patil et al. (2018) in jamun. Similarly, Choudhary et al., (2022) [12] reported that plants produced from pre-soaking treatment of papaya seeds with GA 3 200 ppm observed the maximum number of primary and secondary roots . This might be due to the fact that, vigorous root growth due to gibberellic acid might have resulted in more production of photosynthetic product and their translocation through phloem to the root zone, which might be responsible for improving the root growth. Similarly Krishna et al., (2024) [26] reported firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm produced plants with maximum number of roots. Likewise, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] observed GA 3 750 ppm treated aonla seeds produced plants having maximum number of secondary roots. Rawat et al., (2023) [51] also noted that plants raised from sweet orange cultivar Malta treated seeds with GA 3 200 ppm resulted maximum total number of roots.

Primary, secondary & tertiary root length and thick root diameter

From the table2, it has been observed that primary root length (22.56cm), secondary root length(14.32cm), tertiary root length (8.75 cm), thick root diameter (1.85 mm) of plants were significantly highest in GA 3 1000 ppm treated karonda seeds as compared to rest of the treatments. Panda et al., (2018) [38] also noted that significantly highest root length of kagzi lime was registered in GA 3 100 ppm treated seeds. Similarly, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] reported highest length of primary root in GA 3 750 ppm treated aonla seeds. Likewise, Rawat et al., (2023) [51] also noted that sweet orange cultivar Malta recorded maximum root length and root diameter of plants in gibberellic acid 200 ppm treated seeds. Similarly, , Krishna et al., (2024) [26] noted that firethorn seed treatment with gibberellic acid 150 ppm resulted maximum root length and root diameter . The increase in root length could be due to exogenous application of gibberellic acid induced the activity of gluconeogenic enzymes during early stages of seed germination and this could be responsible for improved germination and vigour characteristics that is reflected in terms of increase in root length (Hota et al., 2018) [21] . Gibberellic acid treatment might have resulted into increased production of photosynthates and their translocation through phloem to the root zone might be responsible for increasing the root growth (Vachhani et al., 2014) [63] . These results are in close agreement with Shaban (2010) [54] and Patel et al., (2017) [42] in mango. Likewise, length of root per seedling was highest in GA 3 200 ppm treated jackfruit seeds (Mithlesh et al., 2025) [31] .

Fresh and dry weight of root

Karonda plants produced from GA 3 1000 ppm treated seeds had highest fresh weight (16.52 gm) and dry weight (11.36 gm) of root (Table2). Likewise, Choudhary et al., (2022) [12] also reported that plants produced from pre-soaking treatment of papaya seeds with GA 3 200 ppm observed the highest fresh and dry weight of roots. This can be ascribed to enhanced water mobilisation, nutrient uptake, and transportation facilitated by gibberellin, which promotes the production and efficient translocation of photosynthetic products throughout the plant (Parab et al., 2017) [40] . Thus, increased growth is a consequence of increased dry matter accumulation (Shweta, 2022) [58] . Similarly, Krishna et al., (2024) [26] noted that firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm gibberellic acid resulted in maximum root fresh and dry weight. Devkate et al., (2025) [15] also reported that aonla seeds treated with GA 3 750 ppm recorded highest fresh and dry weight root of plant. This may be due to the fact that gibberellins in roots, like in shoots, cause the cells in the sub-apical region to elongate, lengthening the roots and increasing their fresh weight. The results align with Boricha et al., (2020) [7] in guava. This enhancement in shoot and root fresh weight is on various physiological processes, including cell division, cell elongation, auxin metabolism, cell wall plasticity, and membrane permeability, which collectively stimulate plant growth (Maheshbhai, 2019) [29] . Comparable findings have been reported in various crops, including Kagzi lime (Jaiswal et al., 2018) [24] and aonla (Chiranjeevi et al., 2017; Verma et al., 2019) [11,64] . Devkate et al., (2025) [15] also observed that GA 3 750 ppm treated aonla seeds produced plants having highest fresh and dry weight of root. Similarly, Rawat et al., (2023) [51] reported sweet orange cultivar Malta treated with gibberellic acid 200 ppm recorded maximum root fresh and dry weight.

Survival

Highest survival (93.16%) of karonda plants was noticed in GA 3 1000 ppm treated seeds and lowest (45.16%) was observed in control treatment (Table 2).The enhanced survival observed in GA 3 treated seedlings is due to initiation of growth-regulating properties, which also promote balanced root and shoot development, increase seedling vigour, and improve tolerance to environmental stress. These findings are consistent with previous research in other fruit crops. This may be due to the fact that gibberellic acid acts on embryo and causes synthesis of hydrolyzing enzymes particularly for growth of embryo and this hydrolyzed food is utilized for growth of embryo and there by enhanced the germination and survival of karonda seeds. Similarly, Devkate et al., (2025) [15] reported highest survival percentage of plants in aonla seeds treated with GA 3 750 ppm. Likewise, Krishna et al., (2024) [26] observed firethorn seeds treated with GA 3 150 ppm resulted maximum plants survival percentage. Paikra et al., (2021) [36] also reported that papaya seeds treated with GA 3 100 ppm had survival percentage of seedlings. Rawat et al., (2023) [51] reported highest survival percentage of plants in sweet orange cultivar Malta seeds treated with GA 3 200 ppm.

Conclusion

The result of the present investigation reveals that presowing seed treatment to karonda seeds with GA 3 1000 ppm and sown in soil + sand + vermicompost: cocopeat (1:1:1:1) medium was found superior with respect to minimum days taken to germination, days to complete gemination and germination percentage. Also plants developed from presowing seed treatment of GA 3 1000 ppm had maximum plant height, plant diameter, fresh weight of stem, dry weight of stem, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf breadth, fresh weight of leaf, dry weight of leaf, primary root number, secondary root number, tertiary root number, primary root length, secondary root length, tertiary root length, thick root diameter, fresh weight of root, dry weight of root and survival percentage.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgmentsAutor thanks the Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur (India) for all support in conducting the experiment.

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