Study on Some Morphologies of Oil Palm Seeds

Abstract

Study on some monphologies of oil palm seeds (mother-dura) was conducted at Suratthani Horticultural Research Centre during July 1996 to March 1997. The results showed that distribution of oil palm seeds weight was positively skewed. The average seed weight was 4.64 g (range from 1.03 to 14.5 g). The seed of 3.1 to 6.1 g weight had largest number of seed which was about 71%. Seeds with different weight had 1, 2 and 3 kernels per seed were about 72.7 24.6 and 3.0% respectively. the seed with large weight usually had more than 1 kernal per seed. Study on relationship between seed weight and other characters found that; seed weight had high relation with shell weight (r2 = 0.97482) rather low relation with kernel weight (r2 = 0.6604) and number of kernels per seed (r2 = 0.4098) and low relation with shell thickness (r2 = 0.1078). From the germination tests it was found that seed of 6.2 to 7.6 and 4.7 to 6.1 g weight had highest percentage of germination. The effect of pre-heated period from 40 to 70 days on germination were not significant difference. Study on moisture content testing methods found that cracked or non-cracked seeds and number of seeds for testing were not different of moisture content