ENHANCING GERMINATION OF LICUALA GRANDIS SEEDS WITH DESICCATION TREATMENT

Licuala grandis is known as a beautiful fan palm in landscaping areas.
It is almost solely propagated by seeds.
Like most palm species, seed germination of this fan palm is slow and non-uniform.
Convenient cultural practices are sought after to enhance the germination of such seeds.
Germination of some commercial palm species, e.g., Elaeis guinensis, has been studied extensively but limited studies were carried out on most of the fan palm species.
Desiccation tolerance of L. grandis seeds extracted from fully ripe fruits was studied for better handling of such planting materials.
This study showed that endocarp detached easily from the seeds after desiccation for 3 days or longer.
Analysis of variance indicated that desiccation significantly affected the germination percentage and germination index of L. grandis seeds.
However, scarification did not give significant advantage in enhancing the seed germination.
The fresh seeds were found with moisture content of 33% and showed low germination percentage and germination index of 43% and 0.22 respectively.
Careful desiccation for four days under ambient condition of 31/24C and 70-80% relative humidity to moisture content of 25% but not further down to 14% was concluded to be a simple and practical tool to achieve high and uniform germination of L. grandis seeds.
Seed germination of 89% and germination index of 0.51 were recorded with this desiccation treatment.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Advances in Ornamentals, Landscape and Urban Horticulture

F.Y. Tsan, S. Norbert

fan palm, desiccation, seed germination, endocarp, uniform germination

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.937.82