Optimization of Seed Germination of Berrya cordifolia by Novel Seed Treatment Techniques

Vollständiger Abstract

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Berrya cordifolia is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 40 meters tall, though in some parts of its range it barely exceeds 6 meters. The bole can be 10 - 50cm in diameter and is unbranched for up to eleven meters. The tree is having fibrous bark, the showy green colour flowers are produced in large tight clusters. The tree can be found in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region. The plants are valuable for their timber. Berrya cordifolia is a valued timber species in Sri Lanka, where it is commonly exploited from the wild. The tree is being grown in plantations in several areas in the tropics. Berrya cordifolia is the one of major plant species propagating by seeds in forest nurseries. However, uniformity of seed germination and germination percentages of untreated Berrya cordifolia seeds are very low even under the normal seed treatments. Therefore, germination of Berrya cordifolia seeds in forest nurseries has been becomes a very costly and time-consuming task. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the objective of identifying a novel seed treatment technique to increase the efficiency of Berrya cordifolia seed germination, which will reduce cost and time consumption for production of Berrya cordifolia seedlings in nurseries. In this study, it was found that treatment in soaking the seeds in cow dung extract is the best pre sowing treatment for Berrya cordifolia seeds with 66.4 (±2.61) % average germination percentage. Average germination speed was 04 days from sowing (time taken to germinate 50% of final population) and 0.6 (±0.55) days average germination uniformity (difference between the time taken to germinate 75% of final population and time taken to germinate of 25% of final population).