1Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh - 173 230, India
2Biotechnology and Genetics Division, Rain Forest Research Institute, Deovan, Jorhat, Assam - 785001, India
3College of Horticulture and Forestry, Central Agricultural University, Passighat, Arunachal Pradesh - 791 102, India
The cones of deodar were collected from trees having diameter 50–60, 60–70 and 70-80cm, respectively at fortnightly interval starting from second fortnight of September to October from Tutu Forest Range, district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The optimum time of cone harvest of deodar was found to be second fortnight of October. Change in cone as well as seed colour related well with other fairly reliable indices of maturity such as moisture content, specific gravity, total, nonreducing, reducing sugars, total phenols and oil percentage. For optimum maturity, cone should be picked at greyish orange colour with dark shade stage, when their cone and seed have moisture content of 24.76 and 14.00%, respectively. At this stage the seed exhibited the maximum viability 74.44% and germination 68.00%, when the seed have total, non-reducing, reducing sugars and total phenol contents of 62.98, 39.63, 21.26 and 36.74 mg/g, respectively. Seed picked during second fortnight of October not only gave maximum germination but also produced oil to the tune of 42.97%.
Maturity indices, specific gravity, germination, moisture content
