Effects of Hot and Cold Water Pre-Treatments on Emergence of Acacia Senegal Seeds in the Nursery

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to check the effect of two pre germination treatments on the emergence of seeds of acacia senegal at the Department of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Maiduguri nursery. The treatments used were immersion of the seeds in cold water (at room temperature) for 8, 12 and 24 hours and hot water at 100 ^oC for 5, 10 and 15 minutes. The research seeks to find the best pre germination time to be used for each of the two pre- treatments used in the experiment. Completely randomized design (CRD) of analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used in analysis of obtained data for each of the treatments. Results from this study indicate no significant difference in the number of seeds that emerged from the cold water treatment (á = 0.05), while treatment with hot water showed significant differences among the treatment times (á =0.05). Treatment of a. senegal seeds with hot water for 10 minutes gave the highest number of emerged seeds (mean, 7.50) which significantly differed with the untreated control (Mean, 4.08). This study therefore, recommends treating seeds of a. senegal for 10 minutes in hot water as the best time for hot water pre treatment. Although there exists no significant difference in the values for the cold water pre treatment, 12 hour pre treatment gave the highest mean of 6.31 and can therefore be favored above the other treatments.