Vol. 8, Issue 5 (2019)

Author(s):
Thanuja PC, Sadashiv Nadukeri and Shashikala S Kolakar

Abstract:
Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus (Linn. F.)) is an important tree species belongs to family Fabaceae. It is commonly known as Rakta Chandana and Lal chandan. It is a medium sized deciduous tree with clear trunk. This tree is good source of dye and heart wood is used to treat skin diseases, bone fracture, leprosy, spider poisoning, ulcers, general debility etc. It is mainly propagated sexually through seeds but the problem in seed germination is due to hard seed coat which hinders the seed germination. Hence, the present study was carried out with an aim to find out the best seed treatment for maximum germination in P. Santalinus at College of Horticulture, Mudigere during the year 2017-18. Seeds were treated with different treatment such as growth regulators (GA₃, NAA, Cytokinine), acid scarification (KNO₃, HCl, H₂SO₄) and organics (hot water, cow urine, cow dung slurry). Among all the treatments seeds treated with 1:1 ratio of cow dung slurry recorded the early germination (11.50 days), days to final germination (45.30 days), maximum germination percentage (47.50%), Final mean germination (1.05), germination value (4.97) and seedling vigour index I (1542.05), seedling vigour index II (312.10) and germination speed (0.62).