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Provenance and pretreatment effect on seed germination of six provenances of Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev

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Abstract

A nursery experiment was conducted to determine the effects of seed pretreatment methods on the germination of Faidherbia albida at ICRAF, Nairobi from six provenances consisting of Awassa, Taveta, Lake Koka, Maseno, Chinzombo and Wagingombe. Seeds were subjected to five pretreatment methods namely nicking, soaking in acid, hot water, cold water and control. Germination percentages (GP), mean germination time (MGT) and germination index (GI) were calculated and the data was subjected to ANOVA. The study revealed significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in seed treatments among provenances in all studied parameters. Highest germination among pretreatments in Awassa (99 %) and Wagingombe (80 %) was observed in nicked seeds, Chinzombo (81 %) in nicked and acid treated seeds, Lake Koka (90 %) in acid treated seeds and Taveta (28 %) and Maseno (64 %) in cold water treated seeds. Nicking gave the highest cumulative GP (69.67) while lowest GP was observed in hot water treated seeds (23.17). Acid treatment exhibited lowest MGT (8.85 days) and highest GI (2.29) while highest MGT (24.35 days) and lowest GI (0.31) were observed in control and hot water treatment respectively. Although acid treatment gave a high GP and lowest MGT and GI, nicking and soaking in cold water for 24 h is being recommended as cheaper and less hazardous pretreatment methods to improve germination in F. albida since sulphuric acid is expensive and requires proper handling techniques. Significant correlation between geo-climatic data and germination parameters of seeds subjected to different pretreatments indicates that provenances are as important as pretreatments in germination of the species.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF, Nairobi) for providing the necessary materials for this work. This work was carried out under the ‘trees for food security’ project led by ICRAF and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR). The project is operating in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi and F. albida is one of the important tree species being studied under the project. We also want to thank Lucy Mwaura of the ICRAF seed laboratory for availing the seeds and Julius Njoroge, Agnes Gachuiri, Julius Kimani and Valentine Gitonga for their support in setting up the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B. 5323, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

    Charity Fredrick

  2. World Agroforestry Centre, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri, P.O. Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Catherine Muthuri & Fergus Sinclair

  3. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya

    Charity Fredrick & Kamau Ngamau

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  1. Charity Fredrick
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  2. Catherine Muthuri
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Correspondence to Charity Fredrick.

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Fredrick, C., Muthuri, C., Ngamau, K. et al. Provenance and pretreatment effect on seed germination of six provenances of Faidherbia albida (Delile) A. Chev. Agroforest Syst 91, 1007–1017 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-016-9974-3

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