Effect of pre-sowing treatments on germination and growth of seedlings of calamus spp.

Abstract

The present study entitled “Effect of pre-sowing treatments on germination and growth of seedlings of Calamus spp.” was carried out on four Calamus species namely, Calamus thwaitesii, C. metzianus, C. hookerianus, and C. travancoricus in the tree nursery of College of Forestry, Vellanikkara, during 2007 – 2009. In the first phase, seeds of four Calamus spp. were subjected to 10 different pre-treatment methods. Most of the treatments gave better performance than the control in all the Calamus spp. under study. Treatment with GA3 and cold water gave a relatively higher germination percentage in all the species except C. travancoricus. Hot water treatment and scarification with sand and ash were found promising in all the species. Seeds sown without any treatment returned poor germination in all the species. In the second phase, the growth and biomass production of the four species were studied for the first six months in the nursery. The first leaf emerged from the prophyl within one week after germination in all the species. In the initial rosette stage of seedling growth, it was found that the total length of first leaf equalled the height of seedlings. The collar diameter of the seedlings was found to show significant increase with every fortnight’s period, in all the Calamus spp. under study. Shoot-root length ratio showed decreasing trend because, the shoot length is constant in the initial months, but root length was increasing. In case of biomass production, all the Calamus spp. showed an increasing trend in the biomass production in terms of fresh and dry weight. During the study period of six months, the contribution of shoot weight to the total biomass of seedling was more than that of root weight, in all the species. C. thwaitesii was superior in growth attributes and biomass among the four species studied.