The common seed treatment methods include cool-water soak, hot-water soak, acid soak, nicking, and no treatment. To determine which of these methods areappropriate for propagating albizia in community-level tree planting programs, a seed treatment study was conducted on Albizia lebbeck, A. procera, A. saman, and A. saponaria. Of the seed treatment methods tested, nicking was most effective at producing rapid, uniform seed germination and germinant development. Unfortunately, nicking is time-consuming and only practical for small to medium quantities of seed. Although inferior to nicking, the hot-water treatment also produced good results and is easily applied to large quantities of seed. When propagating large numbers of albizia seedlings, seed should be soaked in boiled water for 3 minutesfollowed by 24 hours in cool water. Stir seed during the hot-water soak. The volumes of hot and cold water should be five times the volume of seed.
Publication year
1997
Authors
Language
English
