Effect of genotypes and pre-sowing treatments on seed germination behavior of jatropha

Abstract

The objective of the study was to explore the effects of pre-sowing seed treatments on germination behaviour and to assess the possibilities of increasing the germination rate of Jatropha curcas. Seeds of twenty jatropha accessions obtained from seven different sources were subjected to three pre-sowing treatments viz., control (T0): unsoaked seeds directly sown in the polybag and apply water up to saturation; T1: seed placed on filter paper in the petridis and moistened once with the water; and T2: seeds kept under stone sand and moistened once with the water. Seeds in T1 and T2 were kept for 72 h before sown in the polybag. The study was conducted in the Glass House of Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Study revealed that pre-sowing treatments significantly (p<0.01) enhanced seed germination parameters of Jatropha. Seed germination started 5 days after sowing and continued up to 12 days. The highest germination percentage (95.85%) was observed in T2 and 100% germination was observed in the genotypes viz., UKM-JC-011, UKM-JC-012, UKM-JC-014, UKM-JC-016 and UKM-JC-020 in T1 and T2. None of the genotypes showed 100% germination in T0. The highest Germination Index (GI) and Seedling Vigor Index (SVI) was found in T2 and the lowest in T0. T2 was found more effective in respect to faster germination, high germination percentage, germination index, seedling vigor index, speed and energy of germination. Five accessions viz., UKM-JC-012, UKM-JC-014, UKM-JC-016, UKM-JC-017 and UKM-JC-019 were found suitable in all the treatments including control. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.