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Improving the germination of Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa seeds.


U. Nzekwe
S. S. C. Onyekwelu
V. C. Umeh

Abstract

An investigation on how to improve the germination of the seeds of the bush mango Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa (= I. Wombulu) was carried out using various soil media in planting depulped and undepulped and, dried and non-dried fruits in polythene bags. The results showed that depulping of fruits, and drying for two days before planting in a 1:1 mixture of sawdust (SD) and forest top soil (TS) enhanced the production of a large quantity of uniform vigorously growing seedlings during the period of investigation. These methods significantly (P £ 0.05) increased seed germination and thus could be used to solve the age long problem of poor germination encountered by growers of the bush mango Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa.
Keywords: Irvingia gabonensis, depulping, germination media, sawdust, topsoil

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eISSN: 1118-2733