Effect of various pre-treatments for breaking the dormancy of Asparagus racemosus Willd.
Mudasir Qadir and Fatima Khan*
Department of Botany, Govt College of Science and Commerce Benazeer, Bhopal-462008 (India) * Present address: Department of Botany, Govt. College Nusrullah Gunj-466331 (India)
ABSTRACT
In the present investigation, seeds of Asparagus racemosus Willd. were subjected to various treatments to achieve early germination by breaking dormancy. It was found that, on 17th day of sowing, scarification with sand resulted in 80% germination followed by the seeds, pre-treated with IAA giving 74% germination. Pre-soaking the seeds overnight, the germination percentage was 68. The germination percentage was 7, 53, 38, 49, 53, 27, 36, 48, 41, 57, 40 and 65 respectively in the seeds kept as control, stratified seeds, the seeds that received alternate high and low temperature, KNO3, thiourea, kinetin, GA3, H2SO4, electric current, mechanical injury, coumarin and brassinolide. Thus, scarification with sand for maximising germination in A. racemosus is the best option, otherwise pre-treatment with IAA also results in higher germination compared to control.