GERMINATION OF DOUM PALM (Hyphaene thebaica, L. MART.) SEEDS AS AFFECTED BY SOME SCARIFICATION TREATMENTS | ||
| Journal of Productivity and Development | ||
| Article 7, Volume 12, Issue 2, July 2007, Pages 453-462 PDF (202.39 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jpd.2007.44968 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Sayed Shahin* 1; Azza .Arafa2 | ||
| 1Botanical Gardens Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt. | ||
| 2Ornamental Horticulture Dept., Faculty of Agric.,Cairo Univ.,Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| A field experiment was carried out during the seasons of 2005 and 2006 at Orman Botanical Garden, Giza, Egypt to study the effect of some scarification treatments on germination parameters, endocarp constituents and the quality of doum (Hyphaene thebaica, L. Mart.) seedlings. The results indicated that endocarp punching or removal treatments slightly improved characters of germination and seedlings quality, which were significant in some cases, specially for punching treatments, while clefting the bare endocarp reduced such parameters to the minimal values in most cases of both seasons. However, the previous three treatments didn’t obviously affect thickness, strength and chemical constituents of the bony endocarp. On the other hand, soaking in concentrated H2SO4, specially for 6 hrs., significantly improved germination (%), germination velocity, mean germination rate, germination rate index, vigour index and quality of the resulted seedlings; which assessed as first leaf length, root branchlets number/ seedling and aerial parts and roots fresh and dry weights. The least means for endocarp thickness, strength and chemical constituents were also referred to the acid scarification with concentrated H2SO4 treatments. Hence, soaking the bare seeds of doum (Hyphaene thebaica, L. Mart.) in concentrated H2SO4 for 6 hrs. can be recommended as a simple, cheap and quick way for high germination percent and good quality of seedlings. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Germination; doum palm; Hyphaene thebaica; sulfuric acid (H2SO4); mechanical scarification; endocarp | ||
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