Exploring the Potentials of Some Pre-Treatments on Seed Germination of Monodora myrstica

Abstract

Investigation on seed dormancy and germination ofMonodora myrstica was carried out. Five pre-treatmentmethods which included the use of chemical, mechanicalscarification, vernalization, wet heat and coconut water wereexamined. The treated and untreated seeds were sown inPetri-dishes and were moistened with distil water. Theuntreated seeds served as the control. The percentage seedgermination (GP) and coefficient of velocity (CoV) of thegerminating seedlings from the treated seeds were comparedto those of the control. All the pre-treatments used in thisstudy resulted in better GP and CoV. This tends to suggestthat M. myristica exhibits seed dormancy that the treatmentsmust have broken. Germinations in seeds pre-treated withsulphuric acid were directly proportional to theconcentrations of the acid. In the mechanical scarified seeds,treatment with sandpaper had the highest germination. Thevernalization pre-treatments revealed that the longer theduration of treatment of the seeds the better theirgermination. Also in the wet heat pre-treatments, seedsimmersed for longer time resulted in better germination.Similarly, germinations in the coconut water pre-treatedseeds were directly proportional to the duration oftreatments. In all the pre-treatments used in this study, seedstreated with 80% concentration of H2 SO4 had the highest GPand CoV values. In conclusion, pre-treatment of seeds of M.myristica will be advantageous in the efforts to domesticatethe species. The use of wet heat method provides apromising method of pre-treating the seeds of this species inthe study area.