Determination of Conformance of Germination in Seeds of Different Size Classes of Nauclea diderrichii

1IJOMAH, J.U., 2UZOWULU, G.I., AND 3OVAT, O.I.
1 & 2Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management,
Cross River University of Technology, Obubra Campus
3Department of Forestry and Wildlife Resources Management
University of Calabar, Calabar.
Abstract
Three different size classes (Large, Medium and Small) of the seeds of
Nauclea diderrichii were tested under humid propagator and in the open
nursery bed. The seeds were weighed and the average fresh weights
were 0.75kg, 0.70kg and 0.50kg for the large, medium and small seeds
sizes respectively. The average lengths varied from 2.2cm and 2.9cm
while the girths were from 2.0cm and 2.6cm. Results show that the
medium seed size class had the highest germinative capacity of 92.5%
though not significantly different from others. It is obvious the
environmental conditions under which the seeds were kept contributed
significantly to their germination. However, a spurious peak value
observed was higher than the true peak value for all seed size classes.
The small seed size class had the best germination value which is an
interaction between mean daily germination and the peak value both in
the open and under humid propagator.
Keywords: Humid propagator, Germinative capacity,