Determination of Effect of Cold Stratification Temperature and Duration on Germination of Spruce (Picea smithiana Wall. Boiss) under Laboratory Conditions

Aim: The natural regeneration of Picea smithiana is generally slow and almost negligible due to a number of factors e.g. presence of undecomposed raw humus on forest floor, low germinative capacity of seed and long interval between good seed years (5-6 years). Therefore the present investigation was carried out to find the effect of stratification temperatures and duration on the germination of Picea smithiana under laboratory conditions.

Area of Study: The germination study was carried out in laboratory at Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology of Kashmir, Benhama, Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir during 2010-2011 to investigate the effect of different stratification temperature and durations on germination of Picea smithiana under laboratory conditions.

Methodology: For germination tests the species seeds were subjected to different stratification temperatures i.e. 0±1°C, 4±1°C, ambient temperature (room temperature) and durations i.e. (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105 and 120 days) on germinability of spruce (Picea smithiana Wall. Boiss) seeds so that it can be propagated. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with twenty-four treatments combinations replicated three times.

Results: It was observed that stratification temperature 0±1°C (T1) for a period of 75 days (P5) resulted in higher germination of 60.62% and germination capacity of 69.62%, which declined to 46.37% and 56.37% at the end of 120 days stratification period. Similar trend was observed for the other germination parameters viz. germination energy, germination value and germination speed.

Conclusion: The germination results indicated that Picea smithiana seeds do possess inherent dormancy which increases with storage. Pre-chilling or cold stratification for 75 days at 0±1°C effectively overcame dormancy in Picea smithiana.