Effects Of Length Of Soaking In 100 Oc Water And Ems On Germination Of Neolamarckia cadamba and Leucaena leucocephala Seeds

A study was conducted to determine the effects of length of soaking in 100oC water and EMS on the germination of Neolamarckia cadamba and Leucaena leucocephala seeds. The seeds were exposed to one of the three treatments: (1) untreated (control); (2) soaking in 100oC water for 20 s followed by soaking in water for 24 hours and 48 hours at room temperature to assess the dormancy period (CDP), cumulative germination (%) (CGP), mean daily germination (%) (MDG) and co-efficient velocity of germination (CVG) in N. cadamba and L. leucocephala. Results showed that soaking in 100oC water for 20 s and then soaked in water for 48 hours had the highest speed of germination, higher cumulative germination (%) (CGP) and shortened period of complete dormancy over soaking duration of 24 hours or no soaking of seeds before planting. The germination speed of seeds increased with increasing soaking for the durations of 0, 24 and 48 hours. Production of the first true leaf was earliest with 48 hours soaking and least with the seeds that were not pre-soaked in water. For EMS study, three different concentrations (i.e., 0.1, 0.3 and 0.6%) of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) were used to treat N. cadamba and L. leucocephala seeds to assess seed germination percentage, lethality, seedling height and survival percentage after 6 months of planting. It was noted that the germination percentage, survivability and seedling height were decreased; whereas lethality increased with increasing mutagenic doses. Higher lethality over control was observed at 0.6% EMS for N. cadamba (57.1%) and L.leucocephala (75.6%). So, the effect of chemical mutagenesis on seedling with 0.6% EMS treatment was much more beneficial as compared to 0.1% and 0.3% EMS. The effectiveness of the three treatments on N. cadamba and L. leucocephala was ranked as 0.6>0.3>0.1