Hot water treatment for improving germination in Melochia corchorifolia

Melochia corchorifolia seeds collected from Odisha were tested for germination before conserving in genebank, exhibited physical dormancy due to hard seededness. In order to determine the most suitable method to reduce the hard seeds and promote rapid and uniform germination, seeds were subjected to hot water treatment at different temperatures and duration. Soaking seeds in water at 70°C for 10 min. was found most effective in breaking dormancy and on an average, germination increased from 7 to 96% in two genotypes. Besides germination, seedling vigour, vigour index and electrolyte leakage were also noticed significantly higher in the treated seeds than in untreated seeds.