Enhancing seed germination through pre-sowing treatment in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars
Paper Details
Enhancing seed germination through pre-sowing treatment in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) cultivars
Abstract
The current investigation was performed with the aim to achieve higher germination in seeds of date palm cultivars of elite quality. The proposed research work was taken up at Lath House of Horticultural Research Institute, Faisalabad. The research was designed according to Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three treatments having four replicates. Seeds of twenty date palm varieties were sown in pre-defined sterilized growing media. Different parameters such as, number of days taken to start of germination, number of germinated seeds, number of seeds survived, success and survival percentages were noted. The results revealed that pre-sowing with water treatment of seeds significantly enhanced all the observed attributes of the date palm seeds. Minimum numbers of days were recorded for the variety Bharee treated with sun heated water at 30 °C. Maximum success percentage (71.75) was measured in variety Zahidi at T2 (immersion in sun heated water at 30 °C) treatment. Also, the highest survival percentage (63.63) was found in Zahidi variety at the same treatment. The study suggest that seed emersion in sun heated (27-30 °C) may be used to break seed dormancy in date palm. Additionally, Zahidi was proved best in the studied attribute among all the investigated exotic date palm germplasm.
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