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Home → Publications → Forest Nursery Notes → 2009 Winter Forest Nursery Notes → 2009 Winter Forest Nursery Notes - New Nursery Literature → Effect of Seed Collection Times and Pretreatment Methods on Germination of Terminalia Sericea Burch. ex DC.

Effect of Seed Collection Times and Pretreatment Methods on Germination of Terminalia Sericea Burch. ex DC.

Likoswe, M. G., Njoloma, J. P., Mwase, W. F., and Chilima, C. Z. African Journal of Biotechnology 7 (16):2840-2846. 2008.

A nursery experiment was conducted to study the effects of seed collection times and pretreatment methods on the germination of Terminalia sericea Burch. ex DC. (Combretaceae). T. sericea is a multipurpose tree species occurring in the miombo woodlands whose seedling production is hampered by very low seed germination rate. Seeds were subjected to four treatment methods each at four different duration of exposure; soaking in hot water, immersion in concentrated sulphuric acid (95%), nicking and soaking in cold water and fire scorching. First collection was done when 60% of the fruits were deep-green to brown while second collection was done when all fruits were purple-brown to pinkpurple. Nicking and soaking in cold water for 12 h gave the highest cumulative germination percentage (51%) for the first collection and appears to be the most feasible and suitable pretreatment method for small scale farmers than use of sulphuric acid.


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Author(s): M. G. Likoswe, J. P. Njoloma, W. F. Mwase, C. Z. Chilima

Section: Tropical Forestry and Agroforestry