Germination Behaviour of Citrullus colocynthis (L. Schard) with Different Chemical and Physical Seed Treatments
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Authors
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SUNIL S. MAHAJAN
ICAR- Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan
Author
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R.N. KUMAWAT
ICAR- Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan
Author
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P. SANTRA
ICAR- Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur 342003, Rajasthan
Author
Keywords:
Colocynth, Germination, Seed treatment, Dormancy, Fruit maturityAbstract
Colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis L. Schard.) grows naturally in the Indian Thar desert and other similar drylands of the world and has great survival mechanisms under extreme xeric conditions. It has unsung potential to supply food for human beings, feed and fodder to animals and specific chemical for the industries. Serious constraint to harness the potential benefits from this plant is presence of seed dormancy. In the present investigation, influence of different seed treatments and stages of fruit maturity on seed germination were studied in two experiments. In the first experiment, seeds were treated with different concentrations of gibberrelins, auxins, kinetins, ethrel, and inorganic nitrogenous compounds (KNO3 and thiourea) to break the physiological seed dormancy of colocynth. Pre-treatment of seed with ethrel at 200 ppm recorded highest germination (80.7%) followed by ethrel at 100 ppm (72.7%), KNO3 at 5000 ppm (46.0%), and thiourea at 1000 ppm (40.7%). Synthetic plant growth regulators (gibberelin, auxins, and kinetin) did not promote seed germination and the performance was at par with control. In the second experiment, physical seed dormancy was studied in intact, decoated and scarified seeds extracted from small, medium, and large sized fruits, each of which was harvested at three different stages of fruit maturity; green, green-yellow, and yellow. Among different physical treatments, decoating and mechanical scarification recorded 66.7% and 35.6% higher germination over the intact seeds (25.94%). Seed germination was significantly affected by the stages of fruit maturity. The decoated seeds collected from small sized fruits harvested at yellow stage of fruit maturity exhibited the highest level of germination (56.4%) over other treatment combinations.
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