2025, Vol. 8, Issue 5, Part A

author(s)
Parminder Singh Brar, Varun Attri, Harmeet Singh Saralch, Sarwan Kumar and Navjot Rana

abstract
Senegalia modesta Wall. also known as Black Sally (Phulai), is a multipurpose tree from the Fabaceae family, valued for its resilience in arid, semi-arid, and humid regions of India and its role in soil conservation. Due to a hard seed coat, its seeds have low water absorption, limiting germination rates. To enhance germination and initial seedling growth, we categorized seeds into two size categories and applied eight pre-sowing treatments within a split plot design. Results revealed that large seed size (p ≤0.05) significantly improves germinability parameters such as the lesser number of days taken to emergence (5.29 days), higher germination per cent (65.21%), germination energy (27.50%), germination value (13.14%), and germination rate index (1.66 per cent day^-1. Large sized seeds established superior growth in terms of root length, shoot length, and collar diameter at 30, 60, and 90 days after sowing. Specifically, root length increased from 8.99 cm to 26.13 cm, shoot length from 13.49 cm to 39.20 cm, and collar diameter from 1.56 mm to 3.89 mm over this period. However, the number of roots per seedling did not significantly vary at these intervals. Large seed size showed the highest seedling biomass and vigor, viz., dry biomass of root (0.19 g, 0.75 g, and 1.32), biomass of shoot (0.37 g, 1.06 g, and 1.74 g), total dry biomass of seedling (0.56 g, 1.81 g, and 3.06 g), root shoot ratio (0.51, 0.71, and 0.77) and seedling vigor index (1490.29, 2980.29, and 4297.32) at 30, 60, and 90 DAS, respectively, but seed size has a non-significant effect on root shoot ratio at 30 and 60 DAS, whereas the minimum value was recorded in small seeds (L₁) for all parameters. Among pre-sowing treatments, seed treated with cow dung slurry for 3 days (T₈) significantly (p ≤0.05) showed lesser number of days taken to emergence (3.17 days), lowest mean germination time (7.62 days), higher germination per cent (73.33%), germination rate (0.13 days^-1), germination energy (33.60%), germination value (17.64), and germination rate index (2.19 per cent day^-1). Cow dung slurry (T₈) also excelled in growth and seedling biomass parameters, viz. root length (10.54 cm, 20.52 cm, and 28.75 cm), shoot length (15.81 cm, 30.78 cm, and 43.12), collar diameter (2.02 mm, 3.28 mm, and 4.68 mm), and number of roots per seedling (9.67, 18.33, and 27.50), total dry biomass of seedling (0.70 g, 2.22 g, and 3.66 g), dry biomass of root (0.25 g, 0.93 g, and 1.64 g), and dry biomass of shoot (0.45 g, 1.29 g, and 2.02 g), highest root shoot ratio (0.55, 0.74, and 0.81) seedling vigour index (1936.85, 3767.16, and 5275.62), whereas in contrast T₁ showed the lowest values for all parameters. The interaction of large seed size with cow dung slurry treatment (L₂T₈) demonstrated the highest overall germination and growth metrics compared to other treatment combinations. These findings suggest that utilizing large seeds in combination with a three-day cow dung slurry treatment optimizes germination and early seedling development of Senegalia modesta Wall. in nursery conditions.