Author: Akintobi, D. C.
Journal of Applied Agricultural Research 2012, 4(1): 91- 96
Abstract
An experiment was carried out at the Central Seed Testing Laboratory of the National Agricultural Seed Council of Nigeria (NASC), Sheda, Abuja, Nigeria, to identify local substrate suitable for seed germination.
The treatments were seed lots of maize, cowpea, rice and sesame germinated in imported paper towels, news print papers, sand, Kim-pack and filter papers. The experiment was a Randomized Complete Block Design in 4 x 5 factorial arrangement replicated four times. The result showed that seed lots germinated best in newsprint papers with a tensile strength of 50% of that of the imported paper towels. It was concluded that sterilized newsprint papers, which is cheaper, readily and locally available could replace imported paper towels as a substrate for seed germination.