Effect of seed priming of tomato with salicylic acid on growth, flowering, yield and fruit quality under high temperature stress conditions.

In order to improve the germination of tomato seeds under high temperature stress conditions seed priming by salicylic acid was investigated. The experiment was conducted to study the effect of salicylic acid on the tomato vegetative growth, yield and fruit quality. The experiment was completely randomized experimental design with three replications. These factors included salicylic acid in three levels (0.25mM, 0.5mM and 0.75mM) applied on tomato. Results indicated that germination and vegetative & reproductive growth of tomato severely reduced by high temperature. Seeds primed with 0.5mM salicylic acid not only improved germination percent but also reduced germination time under stress conditions. The TSS, TA, vitamin C and lycopene content of tomato fruit had significantly affected by application of salicylic acid. The exogenous applications of salicylic acid improved the yield contributing factors that resulted in significant increases in tomato fruit yield.