Pre-winter sowing in Angelica glauca Edgew for better and early nursery stock production in temperate region of Himachal Pradesh

Angelica glauca Edgew belonging to family Apiaceae is found in higher temperate to alpine zone on grassy rocky/moist shady slopes, scrubs, humus-rich soil, water springs and forest edges of the western Himalayas between 2000–3200 m altitude right from Indus to Kumaon region. Due to its overexploitation and unscientific extraction from the natural habitat, the population of this medicinal plant has come down drastically in last couple of decades. It can be propagated through seeds as well as through root/shoot cuttings. Use of seed of this species for multiplication is more eco-friendly due to non-destructive harvesting of this endangered plant species. Keeping this in view a study was conducted to evaluate germination behavior of pre-and post-winter sowing of its seeds during 2013 winter up to 2014 rains. Results revealed that by the month of May germination was above 50 per cent in case of pre-winter whereas it was 28.03 per cent for post-winter sowing. For pre-winter sowing the germination was culminated by the month of July and total 74.67 per cent germination was recorded. In case of post-winter sowing the germination culminated in the month of August with overall 56.02 per cent germination. Therefore for swiftly raising nursery stock with better germination pre-winter sowing is recommended over post-winter sowing.