Germination of tiessa (Pouteria campechiana [H.B.K.] Bachni) and caimito(Chrysophyllum caimito Linn.) for a forest rehabilitation project

• Main Author: Go, Helen Grace V.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Germination; Fruit trees; Seeds > Viability; Plant physiology; Forests conservation; Biodiversity; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Forest Biology; Forest Management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1470
• Institution: De La Salle University

The breaking of seedcoat at the radicle end of both caimito (Chrysophyllum caimito Linn.) and tiessa (Pouteria campechiana [H.B.K.] Bachni) seeds had significantly hastened their germination. Using this pre-germination technique, it took and average of 14 days for caimito, and 34 days for tiessa seeds to germinate. Tiessa seeds had a significantly higher percentage of germination (64 percent) when the seed coat was broken. The other treatments such as soaking in hot water, soaking in tap water and stirring in concentrated sulfuric acid did not show any significant difference in terms of germination period when compared with the control. However, seeds subjected to the acid treatment resulted to the lowest germination success. The height of the seedlings did not also vary significantly among treatments but instead showed significant variation among blocks. This could probably be attributed to the effect of the different environmental factors influencing growth of seedlings in the study site such as light, wind, and rainfall.