Fruit maturity, storage time and pre-sowing water treatment effect on emergence and seedling vigour parameters of bitter wild mango (Irvingia wombolu Vermoesen) seeds in the nursery

Poor germination and seedling establishment as well as unavailability of seeds are major problems in sustainable production of Irvingia wombolu. Hence the need to find the right colour fruit maturity, storage time and pre-sowing water treatment on emergence and seedling vigour parameters of bitter wild mango seeds with the aim of improving this multipurpose fruit tree species. Five maturity colour which include green, yellow, yellowish green, greenish brown and dark brown were subjected to 4 water soaking regimes (0, 12, 24 and 36 h) and 4 room temperature storage duration (0, 2, 4 and 6 weeks). Completely randomized design factorial with three replications was used. Data on seed emergence capacity, seedling length, seed vigour index (SVI), stem diameter and number of leaves were subjected to analysis of variance. Results shows that significant differences (P<0.05-P<0.01) were observed in the five quality traits observed due to differences in fruit colour, soaking time and storage time. The three- way interaction between fruit colour, soaking time and storage time were significant ((P<0.05-P<0.01) for all the characters. Dark brown fruit recorded the best in terms of emergence, seedling vigour index, stem diameter and leaf while yellow colour fruit had the best in terms of plant height. Zero-hour soaking had the highest in seedling emergence, seedling vigour index and leaf number while 12 h soaking gave the best effect in terms of plant height and stem diameter. Dark brown and yellow colour fruit of I. wombolu are recommended and short duration of soaking for 0-12 h will enhance the plant height and stem diameter.