Fatimah Eniola SALISU

This study investigated the effect of different seed coat pre-treatments on the germination and early seedling growth of Chrysophyllum delevoyi. The experiment was conducted at the nursery of the Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Nigeria. The treatments applied were: total removal of seed coat (T₁), no removal of seed coat (control) (T₂), soaking in water for 24 hours (T₃), soaking in water for 48 hours (T₄), and nicked seed coat (T₅). The experimental design used was a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replicates per treatment, each containing 15 seeds, giving a total of 225 seeds. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA and LSD) at a 5% level of significance. Germination commenced at different times across treatments. Germination commenced 9 days after sowing (DAS) in T2, T3, T5 respectively and 8 days after sowing (DAS) in T4. T₁ failed to germinate, while T₂, T₃, and T₄ recorded mean germination percentages of 77.78%, 68.89%, and 73.33% respectively. The nicked seed coat (T₅) produced 42.22%. Mean germination time (MGT) ranged from 23.43 days(T₂) 23.10 days (T₃) to 23.32 days (T₄) and then 23.09 days (T₅), the control and soaked treatments showed faster emergence. Germination peaks were observed in the 3rd week after sowing (WAS) for T₂, T₃, and T₄. Growth parameters followed a similar trend. and growth data was recorded for 12 weeks. Wet and dry biomass were measured at termination of experiment using destructive method. The control (T₂) recorded the highest mean seedling height (11.13cm) while T3 had the lowest height (10.18cm). The collar diameter for T5 was the largest with a value of 1.85mm and T3 having the lowest value (1.55mm). The highest number of leaves was from T5 with 3.76 leaves, T4 having the lowest number (3.36 leaves. T3 had the longest root length of 14.47cm while the lowest value of 11.25cm was recorded for T5. The highest wet and dry biomass were recorded for treatments T2 and T3 with values of 4.02 and 1.83 respectively, while T4 and T5 had the lowest values of 3.55 for the wet biomass while T5 had the lowest value for the dry biomass (1.55)