Response of three Bambara groundnut landraces to pre-sowing hydration in Botswana

Abstract

To investigate the response of Bambara groundnut landraces to pre-sowing hydration, three experiments were conducted on three bambara groundnut landraces; OM1, Diphiri cream (DC) and Gaborone cream (GC) in the greenhouse at Botswana College of Agriculture, Botswana, in 2011. The experimental designs were completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 pre-sowing hydration; (6, 12, 24, 48, 72 hrs) and the control, each replicated four times. Increasing hydration time from 12 to 72 hrs significantly (p≤0.01) increased the final germination for GC up to 87% and significantly increased OM1 germination up to 57% at 24 hrs. However, there was a significant decrease in final germination for DC. There were significant (p≤0.01) differences within and across the landraces for seedling emergence; GC had the highest emergence of up to 100% at 24 hrs. Across the three landraces GC and DC significantly (p≤0.05) increased stem dry diameter at 6, 12 and 24 hrs pre-sowing hydration. Moreover, pre-sowing hydration treatments had significant (p≤0.01) effect within the three Bambara landraces root dry matters and no significant (p>0.05) effect on GC and DC leaf dry matter. Hydrating seeds for 24 hrs improved germination, seedling emergence, leaf and stem dry matter accumulation of bambara groundnut landraces