Effect of Pre-Treatments on the Germination Capacity and Early Growth of Dacryodes Edulis at Nursery Stage

Abstract

Seeds of Dacryodes edulis being recalcitrant in nature, are desiccation and chilling sensitive and are viable for a very short period. The present study was conducted to identify methods to prolong seed viability of the specie. Seeds were sundried under light shade, kept in room temperature and sundried (for 2 hours), then kept in room temperature, for the periods of 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours. Germination and early growth were evaluated. Germination percentages in P2 (room temperature) and P3 (sundried and room temperature) treatments were observed to drop with increase in pre-treatments durations. Early performances of the seedlings revealed that treatments P1 (SD1, SD2 and SD3) and P2 (SDRT1 and SDRT20 did better than P2, though P2 had the highest germination percentage of 85.2.It was recommended that farmers should take advantage of this finding for the regenerating and multiplication of this specie.