Effect of plant growth regulators on vegetative growth, sex expression,fruit setting, seed yield and quality was studied for hybrid seed production in the parental lines of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) hybrids,Pusa hybrid 1 and Pusa hybrid 2 in rainy and spring-summer season. Plant growth regulators namely GA3 @ 50 ppm, NAA @ 200 ppm, maleic hydrazide @ 100 ppm, etherel @ 50 ppm were sprayed at three leaf and tendril initiation stage. The results showed that application of GA3 significantly enhanced vine length, number of branches and nodes/vine, fruiting, seed yield and quality in the parental lines in both the seasons.The plants sprayed with growth regulators showed induction of female flowers at lower nodes with 3-5 more pistillate flowers per vine and higher sex ratio as compared to unsprayed control. In manually pollinated flowers, plants sprayed with GA3@ 50 ppm had higher fruit and seed setting, fruit weight and hybrid seed yield. All the growth regulators had positive influence on vegetative, flowering and fruit traits in both the seasons but effect of growth regulators were more evident in rainy than springsummer season. GA3 @ 50 ppm, NAA @ 200 ppm, etherel @ 50 ppm were effective for enhancement in vegetative growth, fruit and seed yield and modification of sex expression but GA3 @ 50 ppm sprayed twice at three leaf and tendril initiation stage was most effective for hybrid seed production of bitter gourd.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is one of the earliest domesticated plants grown for its protein and oil rich seed, fiber and psychoactive substances and it is one of the earliest known medicinal plants in human history. Studies were conducted on seed germinability (germination test) and viability (topographical tetrazoliun chloride test) in three seed lots to determine the seed quality. Studies conducted on effect of five seed moisture contents (5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 % on fresh weight basis), three storage temperature (ambient, 15°C and -20°C) and eight storage periods (0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months) on seed longevity revealed that the critical moisture content (moisture content required in seeds for retaining initial germination after storage of seeds up to 36 months) of seeds for ambient storage condition of Delhi was 5 %, which increased to 7 % in 15°C and 12 % at -20°C storage temperature. The seeds are desiccation as well as chilling tolerant, therefore, exhibit orthodox storage behavior and are ideal for ex-situ conservation of seeds in seed/gene banks.

A study was carried out to assess the storage potential of onion genotypes under natural and accelerated ageing conditions. Freshly harvested seeds of thirty onion genotypes were stored in ambient conditions for nine months and subjected to accelerated ageing for 3 and 6 days (42°C and 75% RH). Significant effects of seed ageing on germination per cent, seed vigour index, mean germination time and germination index were recorded. Germination per cent ranged from 56.0- 96.0 in control seeds, which declined to 31.0-82.0 and 18.0- 83.0 per cent, respectively, at ambient conditions (9 months) and accelerated ageing treatments (6 days). In the current study, the seed germination and vigour indices decreased significantly, whereas the mean germination time increased for all the genotypes under both conditions. Further, cluster analysis was done to categorize the onion genotypes into good or poor storers. A significant and positive correlation was found among both natural and artificial ageing treatments. The study facilitated the categorization of onion genotypes into distinct seed longevity groups.