Treatment of lentil (Lens culinaris. L) seeds with various concentrations of salts to check their efficiency against seed-borne mycoflora during storage

Seed sample of lentil collected from the Swabi district were treated with NaCl and KCl at 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0% (w/w). Seed-borne mycoflora was observed at 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 day intervals. Seed treatment with both the salts was found to be effective against storage fungi; however, KCl was more efficient against storage mycoflora such as Aspergillus species when compared with NaCl. With the passage of time, the incidence of deep-seated fungi was observed in salt-treated seed samples while untreated seed sample showed heavy infestation by the species of Aspergillus. Seed viability also remained unaffected in storage, except in seeds heavily infested with seed-borne mycoflora. Aspergillus spp. were the main cause of seed rot. Surface sterilisation of seeds with 1% Na(OCl)₂ reduced the fungal infestation of seeds. Among various concentrations of salts, 0.1% (w/w) of both salts were better in controlling seed-borne mycoflora.