Appropriate watering interval for Prunus africana nursery seedlings in Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya

Water is essential in raising seedlings but needs to be efficiently utilized since it is a scarce resource. Hardening off of nursery seedlings through reduction of watering regime leads to better survival. Watering interval is not well determined and this can vary with species type and locality. An experiment was set up in dry season to determine the most appropriate watering interval for African stinkwood (Prunus africana) seedlings in Egerton University, Kenya. The experiment was laid down as a Completely Randomized Design with 4 treatments replicated 3 times. Treatments comprised of different watering intervals, which were as follows; twice daily, once daily, 2 days and 4 days, which were applied for 2 months on seedlings during January to March 2018. ANOVA was used to determine treatment differences while SED was used to determine the significantly different treatment means at p ≤ 0.05. Results showed that watering twice daily gives the best growth of Prunus seedlings but encourages succulent foliage growth which is not favourable for planting out seedlings. Therefore two days watering interval is the most ideal for hardening off seedlings that are non-succulent in the highlands since it reduces foliage growth and encourages woodiness. The recommended interval is 2 days since it showed good growth with minimal water use equivalent to 25% of the water used by seedling watered twice daily. The results can be applied in the Kenyan highlands for non-succulent species. Further studies needs to be done for different pot sizes and soil mixtures.