14 research outputs found
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Seed germination and in vitro regeneration of the African medicinal and pesticidal plant, Bobgunnia madagascariensis
Propagation of the medicinal and pesticidal tree, Bobgunnia madagascarensis is difficult due to poor and erratic germination of its seeds and slow growth of its seedlings. This study involved two separate experiments. The first evaluated the effect of pre-sowing treatments and growing medium on ex vitro seed germination and early seedling development. The second experiment involved in vitro germination, shoot initiation and rooting of shoots. Pre-sowing seed treatments involved soaking seeds in cold and hot water for 12 and 24 h and soaking in different concentrations (0, 100, 200, 400 and 800 mg/l) of gibberellic acid for 24 h. Soaking of seeds in cold or hot water for up to 24 h did not achieve more than 45% germination, while seeds treated with gibberellic acid achieved 76%) when seeds were sown in a growing medium without compost compared with a medium with compost (<43%). All shoot-tips isolated from the in vitro germinated seedlings on B5 media without plant growth regulators continued to grow as a single shoot, while shoot-tips cultured on B5 supplemented with 0.1 mg/l of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and thidiazuron (TDZ) produced two shoots each after four weeks. It was concluded that B. madagascariensis seeds had very low ex vitro germination percentages. Although, in vitro cultures improved seed germination, axillary shoot multiplication and rooting were not satisfactory. Therefore, further studies are needed to develop an optimal in vitro multiplication protocol for B. madagascariensis
Conservation of the Ethiopian church forests: threats, opportunities and implications for their management
Interplanting banana at high densities with immature rubber crop for improved water use
Consumptive water use of the rubber/banana intercropping systems was assessed. Five systems were tested; sole rubber (R) and banana (B) crops and three intercrops comprising additive series of one (BR), two (BBR) and three (BBBR) rows banana to one row of rubber. Planting density of rubber remained constant across the treatments, hence the rate of transpiration associated closely with the planting density of banana with ca. 140% increase from banana-rubber to banana-banana-banana-rubber intercrops. Although water use efficiency (WUE) at whole stand basis was comparable among treatments, water use efficiency of component rubber during the latter part of the experiment increased by 118% in intercrops compared to that of the sole crop. Amount of water transpired even in the banana-banana-banana-rubber intercrops was small by comparison to the water received from rainfall, hence in wet tropics with heavy rainfall, agricultural systems should be designed to enhance the productivity through increase water use with less emphasis on water use efficiency