Abstract

 
 
 Faidherbia albida is an agroforesrty tree that has the potential of promoting agroforestry establishment in Nigeria. The seeds are glossy due to the presence of wax in the seed coat which prevents easy penetration of water. Thus, this study assessed the effect of different pretreatments (biological, mechanical and chemical) on the germination of F. albida seeds. The treatments include; seeds scarified at the helium, soaked in cold water for 24 hours, soaked in hot water for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, & 15 minutes and soaked in Conc. H2SO4 for 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes. The result showed that all treatment had uniform germination percentage of 100% but seeds soaked in H2SO4 for 15 min and 10 min had the highest germination value of (65.25) and (65.00) respectively, followed by 15mins soaking in hot water (47.14) while the least germination value was recorded in seeds scarified mechanically (33.31). Analysis of variance revealed that there was no significant difference in the treatments. However, seeds treated with H2SO4 at 15 mins and 10 mins had the best performance in terms of germination value compared with other treatments. Therefore, for optimum and uniform germination, the seed of F. albida seeds should be soak in concentrated H2SO4 for 15 min.
 
 
Highlights
Faidherbia albida is an agroforesrty tree that has the potential of promoting agroforestry establishment in Nigeria
Faidherbia is a genus of leguminous plants containing one species, Faidherbia albida, which was formerly widely included in the genus Acacia as Acacia albida
H2SO4 in 10 and 15 minutes had the highest peak value 17.33 and 17.40 respectively as well as germination value of 65.00 and 65.25 respectively followed by hot water treatment with peak value 12.57 and germination value (47.14) while the least value was recorded in mechanical scarification with peak value (9.33) and germination value (33.31) (Table 2)
Summary
Faidherbia albida is an agroforesrty tree that has the potential of promoting agroforestry establishment in Nigeria. These include gibberellic acid, potassium nitrate, succinic acid, HCl, nitric acid, boric acid, acetic acid, ethanol, methanol, benzene, xylene, urea, benzyl adenine, among others (Alves et al, 2000; Ghadiri and Torshiz, 2000; Idu et al, 2007; Schmidt, 2000) It has been noted by Orwa et al (2009) and Asiedu et al (2011) that very little work has been done on the plant the need to conduct further study to determine the best pre-treatment method that will help to break dormancy and give higher germination. This experiment investigated the effects of some pre-sowing treatments on the germination of Faidherbia albida seeds
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