Enhancement of germination and seedling growth attributes of a medicinal tree species Pterocarpusmarsupium Roxb. through pre sowing seed treatments

Abstract

Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. is an important tree species belongs to family Fabaceae and it is distributed in deciduous forests throughout India which is a good source of dye, timber and also used as medicine for treating leprosy, leukoderma, inflammation, excessive urination etc. It is mainly propagated through seeds but the problem in seed germination is due to hard seed coat which limits seed germination. So the present study was carried out in College of Horticulture, Mudigere with an aim to find out the best treatment for enhancement of germination in P. marsupium. Seeds were treated with different treatment includes growth regulators (GA3, NAA, Cytokinine), acid scarification (KNO3, HCl, H2SO4) and organics (hot water, cow urine, cow dung slurry), among all the treatments seeds treated with H2SO4 (2%) recorded the higher germination percentage (65.83%) and seedling attributes compared to untreated seeds in control. It helps in the multiplication of a large number of plants meanwhile increase the availability and conservation.