EFFECT OF PRE- SOWING SEED TREATMENT OF MORINGA (Moringa oleifera) ON SANDY LOAM SOIL

Özet

Sowing seed treatments have been reported to have influence on the germination percentage and growth performance, which could affect crop yield when transplanted to the field. Replacing chemically expensive and laborious pre-treatment with physically pre-treatment with physically pre-treated seed reduce the cost of producing moringa by resource poor farmers. Therefore a Nursery experiment was conducted at the Department of Agronomy, Bayero University Kano, to examined effect of three pre sowing seed treatment, dry seed with complete coat (DSCC), dry cracked seed with  complete coat (DCSC), soaked seed with complete coat (SSCC,) soaked cracked seed coat, (SCSC), on the germination percentage and growth indicator of moringa plants. The treatment was replicated three time in a completely randomized design, the result indicated that DCSC had significantly higher (P=0.05) seed germination percentage; than SCSC and SSCC however the highest seed germination percentage was observed under DSCC. By 55.5%, 44.4%, 33.3%, and 88.9% respectively at 1 week after sowing (WAS). The experiment provides information about sowing seed treatment of moringa oleifera which could replace the chemically expensive and laborious sowing seed treatment technique for optimal moringa production. in term of germination. Percentage sowing seed treatment have no significant effect on moringa seed germination percentage, this indicate that the resource- poor farmers there is no need to treat moringa seed before sowing into sandy loam soil.