Effects of Different Pre- sowing Treatments on Seed Germination of African Grape (<i>Lannea microcarpa</i> L.)

Abstract

Over-exploitation coupled with adverse effect of increased human activities and lack of standard plantation endangers the germination of Lannea microcarpa seeds. An experiment was carried out to check the effect of different pre-sowing treatments on seed germination of African Grape (Lannea microcarpa L.). Pot trials was conducted during dry season at Botanic garden, Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Science, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State using completely randomized design (CRD). Seeds were subjected to three different concentrations of sulphuric acid, hot water, cold water, physical treatment and untreated seed as control and were analyzed independently to obtain the best treatment periods. To remove the fungal spore and exudate, a total of nine hundred and sixty (960) viable seeds were selected and surface sterilized in 1.0% Sodium-hypochlorite (NaOCl) for 1 minute and rinsed three (3) times in sterile distilled water. 20 viable seeds were sown for each polypot. In chemical pre-sowing treatments, maximum germination percentage (85.00%) and early days to seedling emergence (8.00 days) were significant (P≤ 0.05) in seed treated with 50% dilute H2SO4 for 1 hour when compared to control and other time intervals. Similarly, in physical pre-sowing treatment, days to early emergence of the seedling were recorded in seed with full-sided scarification (6.00 days). Highest germination percentage (90.00 %) and early days to seedling emergence (6.00 days) were recorded in seed immersed in hot water for 10 minutes when compared to untreated (15.00 days). In Seeds immersed in cold water, the result did not produce significance differences (P> 0.05) among the treatments except for seeds immersed in cold water for 8.00 hours (80.00%) and early days to seedling emergence (6.00 days) when compared to other treatments and the untreated seed (15.00 days). These results suggested that seed with full-sided scarification (6.00 days), seed immersed in hot water for 10 minutes (6.00 days) and cold water for 8.00 hours (6.00 days) used in this study were optimum for the best treatments inducing emergence breakage of seed coat and the technology could be applied to generate seedling for future breeding programme.