Exploring the potentials of some pre-treatments on seed germination of Monodora myrstica

Investigation on seed dormancy and germination of Monodora myrstica was carried out. Five pre-treatment methods which included the use of chemical, mechanical scarification, vernalization, wet heat and coconut water were examined. The treated and untreated seeds were sown in Petri-dishes and were moistened with distil water. The untreated seeds served as the control. The percentage seed germination (GP) and coefficient of velocity (CoV) of the germinating seedlings from the treated seeds were compared to those of the control. All the pre-treatments used in this study resulted in better GP and CoV. This tends to suggest that M. myristica exhibits seed dormancy that the treatments must have broken. Germinations in seeds pre-treated with sulphuric acid were directly proportional to the concentrations of the acid. In the mechanical scarified seeds, treatment with sandpaper had the highest germination. The vernalization pre-treatments revealed that the longer the duration of treatment of the seeds the better their germination. Also in the wet heat pre-treatments, seeds immersed for longer time resulted in better germination. Similarly, germinations in the coconut water pre-treated seeds were directly proportional to the duration of treatments. In all the pre-treatments used in this study, seeds treated with 80% concentration of H₂SO₄ had the highest GP and CoV values. In conclusion, pre-treatment of seeds of M. myristica will be advantageous in the efforts to domesticate the species. The use of wet heat method provides a promising method of pre-treating the seeds of this species in the study area.