Morphological and germination physiognomies of Carissa carandas seedlings influenced by seed storage at ambient conditions

Abstract

The present study was taken up to know the morphological and germination physiognomies of karonda (Carissa carandas) seeds influenced by seed storage period at ambient conditions (26 ?C temperature and 55 % RH). Seeds were subjected to store at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 days at room temperature (26?C). Germination percentage and various morphological characteristics viz., vigour index, fresh weight of shoot and root, dry weight of shoot and root, root to shoot ratio were recorded. Among stored seeds 10 days old seeds recorded highest germina-tion percentage (57 %) and 60 days old seeds recorded lowest germination (20.33 %). At the end (90 days after sowing) 10 days old seeds again possessed higher fresh weight of root (0.300 g) and shoot (1.240 g), dry weight of root (0.103 g) and shoot (0.487 g), root to shoot ratio (0.212) and vigour index (1772.70 cm) among stored seeds. These physiological observations were quite similar with the freshly harvested seed which found maximum values for all the parameters owing to higher moisture content. Karonda seeds showed good viability upto10 days thereafter its value declined and it reached minimum after 60 days of storage.