Abstract
The two year experiment was conducted in the form of a randomized block design with 10 treatments and 3 replications in order to investigate the influence of suitable plant geometry in conjunction with seed priming on root characteristics, microbial population, yield and uptake by wheat crop. The experiment constitutes ten treatments which involves 4 different primed and unprimed wheat crop sown at four different plant geometries along with conventional sown wheat. In context to organic seed priming formulation which comprised of vermi-compost, water, cow urine and Jaggery in the ratio of 1.0: 1.0: 0.5: 0.1. The two years of experimental findings revealed that primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 5 cm recorded significantly highest grain yield (5244.7 kgha-1). This treatment is statistically at par in yield with primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 10 cm and conventional sown primed wheat. Further, Primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 5 cm recorded the significantly higher grain yield, microbial population and uptake of N, P, K in grain and straw as compared to other treatments. Root characteristics of wheat crop in terms of root length, root weight and root volume were recorded significantly higher under primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 20 cm during 2018–19 and 2019–20, respectively. However, primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 20 cm took lesser number of days to attain initial and complete plant emergence with 4 days and 8.67 days. Significantly (P <0.05) highest available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was recorded in plots of un-primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 20 cm. Thus, Primed seed sown at plant geometry of 20 cm × 5 cm proved to be the most remunerative as it recorded highest grain yield during both the years of research study.