Enhancing seedling production of black velvet tamarind (Dialium guineense Willd) 1

The present investigation was conducted to enhance seedling production of Black Velvet Tamarind (Dialium guineense). Three different types (sets) of experiments were designed. The results showed no sprouting of the stem cuttings in the first type of experiment ( stem cuttings treated with Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) and coconut milk). The second type of experiment (seeds subjected to some pre-sowing treatments using NAA, coconut milk, manual scarification and seeds soaked in water for 24 hrs) showed highly significant treatment effects for seed treatments and days after planting, DAP (p < 0.001), while time or duration of treatment was not significant. There were highly significant interaction effects for Treatment duration x Seed treatments and Treatment duration x Days after planting (DAP). Mean percentage germination was best at 2000ppm NAA (43.85%), but was not significantly different from1000ppm, (40.28%), water soaked (40.28%) and manual scarification (38.88%). Lower germination rates were observed for 500ppm (34.72%), normal or untreated seeds (30.75%), and coconut milk (28.38%). There were highly significant treatment effects (p < 0.001) between the control (normal seeds) with 11.2% mean germination, cold treatment (stratification), 21.1% and manual scarification 33.7%. DAP was also highly significant with the highest mean germination of 34.1% at 56DAP. Treatments x DAP was highly significant (p < 0.01) in the third experiment (stratification, a cold temperature pre-sowing treatment). Soaking seeds for 24 hrs before planting was adjudged the best treatment for enhancing seedling production in Dialium guineense in this study. It was the easiest and cheapest of all other treatments considered.