Determination of Seed Density of Several Forest Trees Species to Improve the Successful Seed Germination

Abstract

The success of tree seed germination for planting programme depends on several factors including tree seed density for seed sowing. The purpose of this study was to determine the seed density based on the level of seed aging to increase the success of seed germination of several forest tree species, namely white jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba (Roxb) Miq.), bambang lanang (Magnolia champaca Linn.), jelutung (Dyera polyphylla Miq.), kayu bawang (Azadirachta excelsa (Jack) Jacobs), and trema (Trema orientalis Linn. Blume).The seed density treatments covered 5 phases (d0, d1, d2, d3, d4) based on the germination percentage (GP). Seedlots variation was derived from 5 seed aging treatments (0, 48, 96, 144, and 192 hours).The determination of seed density was based on Kartika’s formula (1994).The results showed: (1) seed density of white jabon was 0.1g of seed/300cm2 with pure live seeds (PLS) of 1140 seedlings/ 0.1g of seed; (2) seed density of bambang lanang was 100 seeds/300 cm2 with GP of 58%; (3) seed density of jelutung seeds with 85% of GP was 50 seeds/600cm2; (4) seed density of kayu bawang with 83% of GP was 50 seeds/600 cm2 and (5) seed density of trema with 78% of GP was 100 seeds/600cm2. The longer the time of seed aging, the lower the value of germination percentage. Therefore,the lower the germination percentage, the seed density will be more tight.