Study on Seed Germination of Pueraria mirifica Airy-Shaw & Suvatabandhu

Abstract

The study on seed germination of Pueraria mirifica Airy-Shaw & Suvatabandhu was conducted in the glasshouse of the Plant Physiology Group, botany and Weed Science Division, during April to December 2001. Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications and five treatments were employed. The seeds were planted in 15x20 cm plastic boxes containing the mixture of paddy ash and sand at the ratio 2:1 with 1.5 kg in each box. The 100 seeds were separately planted in each plastic box of each treatment. Seed germination was tested monthly up to nine months. The first treatment, seeds were untreated, the second, third, fourth and the fifth treatment, seeds were soaked in water for 15 hours and then the third treatment was dried in oven at 55๐C, the fourth dried in sunlight for 3 hours and the fifth was soaked in 0.2% sulfuric acid for 30 minutes. The plastic boxes were watered and covered with the plastic sheets. The percent of seed germination was counted at 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35 days after planting. The results showed that the third and the fourth treatment gave the highest seed germination for every month of testing. In September the third treatment was the highest percentage of germination and was different from other treatments. An average of germination percentage in May tended to be the highest at 51.25 percent.