Pre- Treatment Effects on the Germination of the Seeds of <i>Calophyllum inophyllum</i> [Linn] (Indian Laurel)

Abstract

The effects of chemical scarification, mechanical scarification, hot water and cold water treatments on germination of seeds of Calophyllum inophyllum [Linn] (Indian Laurel). Seeds were immersed in Tetraoxosulphate (iv) cid, hot water (100°C) and water at room temperature for 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 24 hours respectively were investigated. Mechanical scarification was done by cracking after which all pretreated seeds were sown in river sand. The result of various pre-treatments showed that mechanical scarification had the highest germination percentage of 77.78, followed by cold water treatment with germination percentage of 57.78.The Control treatment gave germination percentage of 55.56, while chemical scarification had a germination percentage of 26.67. Hot water treatment however, had the lowest germination percentage of 0. Analysis of variance showed that there was significant difference at 5% level of probability among the treatments. This study has therefore shown that mechanical scarification is the most effective pre-treatment for germination of Calophyllum inophyllum.

Keywords: Calophyllum inophyllum, pre-treatment, scarification, germination.