A field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station, Devihosur, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. There were 18 treatment combinations consisting of three cropping systems and six seed priming treatments. In the present investigation, root: shoot ratio of maize at 30 DAS (0.37), 60 DAS (0.34) and 90 DAS (0.32) was affected by priming treatments in which only bio-priming found advantageous over farmers' practice. In contrast, priming treatments did not show any impact on root length due to receipt of well distributed rainfall. In maize, the beneficial effect of bio-priming (17.45 g plant-1) and combination of all priming methods (17.65 g plant-1) with respect to root dry weight was to the tune of 12.44% to 13.43% at 60 DAS. At 90 DAS all the priming treatments except hydro-priming resulted in 9.49% to 25.78% improvement in root dry weight. Interaction effect indicated that, at 30 DAS highest root : shoot ratio was recorded in biopriming (0.45) in sole cropping compared to rest of the treatment combinations. Similar holds true for root dry weight in maize at 90 DAS in which biopriming (41.09 g plant-1) in sole cropping was beneficial as compared to rest of the treatment combinations.