Effect of some pregermination treatments on germination of some ornamental palm seeds

Abstract EN

Two pot experiments were conducted during two successive seasons of 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 at Orman Botanical Garden, Giza, Egypt.

The experiments aimed to study the effect of some pregermination treatments, i.e.

Soaking in GA3 at 250 ppm for 1 day and soaking in tap-water for 3 and 6 days alone or followed by soaking in GA3 at 250 ppm for 1 day, on some germination traits of three ornamental palm seeds namely Livistona chinensis, R.

Br., Chamaerops humilis, L.

and Thrinax parviflora, Swartz.

Control seeds did not receive any soaking treatment.

The obtained results showed that most pregermination treatments gave significantly higher germination percentage (G%), earlier germination (G.V), less days for mean germination rate (M.G.R.) values, as well as, higher germination rate index (G.R.I.) values when compared to control with some variations between the different palm seeds.

All treatments increased total sugars percentage while decreased total phenols percentage in the treated palm seeds when compared to control.

In general, to obtain the best germination traits it would be recommended to soak seeds of Livistona chinensis in tap-water for 3 days followed by soaking in GA3 at 250 ppm for 1 day, and seeds of both Chamaerops humilis and Thrinax parviflora in tap-water for 6 days followed by soaking in GA3 at 250 ppm for 1 day.