Impact of Pretreatment on the Germinative Characters of Seeds of <i>Stereospermum kunthianum</i> Cham. (Bignonaceae) for Its Domestication in Chad

Abstract

The objective of this research is to lift the dormancy of seeds of S. kunthianum in with a view to domesticating them. In this experiment, we used the soaking of seeds in sulfuric acid for different durations (10 min, 30 min and 1 h). The treated seeds were sown in transparent germinators. The explants obtained were then transplanted into pots containing five types of substrate (black earth, fine sand, sawdust, mixtures 1/1 of sawdust/black earth and 1/1 of sawdust/fine sand). This second test made it possible to determine the rate of germination on the substrate. The results obtained compared to those of the control showed a clear reduction in the latency time or germination time (62 hours) instead of 6 days (control), in the germination time 3 days/7 days (control) and a very high germination rate (100%). At the 5% threshold, soaking for 10 min and 30 min (100%) is the best result on the germination of S. kunthianum seeds. Soaking for 1 hour gives (7%) very low. After transplantation of the explants, the percentages obtained independently of the treatments show that the 1/1 mixtures of sawdust/black earth (75.19%), black earth (73.33%) and sawdust/fine sand (66.30%) have a higher performance than the others. The type of germination is epigeal. This work makes it possible to domesticate S. kunthianum in Chad.