Influence of certain physical and chemical treatments on the germination and subsequent growth of coconut Cocos nucifera L.seedlings a preliminary study
The effect of certain physical and chemical treatments on the germination and asubsequent growth of coconut seedlings was tested. The treatments consisted of soaking the seed coconuts for 48hours in 0.01 and 0.02 molar potassium nitrate and sodium carbonate solutions, soaking in water for one week and two weeks durations and a physical treatment of chopping the husk from both ends of the nut. A control was also provided for comparison. The results indicated that all the treatements except the chopping of the ends significantly reduced the the germination period, gave a higher percentage germination and greater growth of seedlings when compared with the control. Amongst the treatments, simply soaking in water for 2 weeks is recommended as it ranked first in all characters and at the same time is simple and easy to follow by farmer