Priming (agriculture)

Priming in botany and agriculture is a form of seed planting preparation in which the seeds are pre-soaked before planting.

Priming is not an extremely widely used method. In general, most kinds of seeds experimented with so far have shown an overall advantage over seeds that are not primed. Many have shown a faster emergence time (the time it takes for seeds to rise above the surface of the soil), a higher emergence rate (the number of seeds that make it to the surface), and better growth, suggesting that the head-start helps them get a good root system down early and grow faster. This method can be useful to farmers because it saves them the money and time spent for fertilizers, re-seeding, and weak plants.

External links

• Overview of Seed Priming on TNO Quality of Life
• Priming Winter Wheat on Crop Science
• Priming Papsalum dialatatum on The Royal Society of New Zealand (pdf file)
• Priming mung beans (Vigna Radiata) on Ingenta Connect