The Effect of Deep Sea Water on Seed Priming of Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annum L.), Rice (Oryza sativa L.) and Ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer)

This experiment was conducted to study whether priming with deep sea water results in enhancement of seed germination and to identify the optimum concentration of the priming solution, and duration of priming using sweet pepper (Cv. California wonder), rice (Cv. Ilpum) and ginseng seed. Sweet pepper and rice seeds were primed with 5 various concentrations (5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30%) for deep sea water for 48 hours, 24 hours and 12 hours at $25^{\circ}C$ and ginseng seeds in 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%, and 2,4,6, and 8 electrical conductivity (EC) which were made by desalinating deep sea water. Priming in deep sea water (DSW) improved the early and final germination percentage, mean germinal on rate, emergence percentage and root and shoot length, compared with plain water, $KNO_3$ and without priming treatments. In sweet pepper, 24 hours priming with 5 percentage DSW significantly improved the early germination percentage and radical length. It has also improved the mean germination and emergence days and early emergence percentage, compared with $KNO_3$ and control. Whereas, in rice, 48 hours priming with 10 percent DSW significantly improved the early germination percentage, plumule emergence percentage, root length and shoot height. Hence the best seed priming treatment on sweet pepper and Rice are 24 hours with 5 percentage DSW and 48 hours with 10 percentage DSW, respectively, whereas in ginseng, priming with EC4, EC8 and 25% DSW had shown better germination.