Study on seed germination and vegetative propagation of salvadora oleoides decne

Because of its high vulnerability, seed germination is considered to be the most critical phase in the plant life cycle. In an attempt to find the possible reason for extremely fast decline in population of Salvadora oleoides in north-west India; the experiments were conducted on seed germination, seedling growth and vegetative propagation. Seeds were sown in different soils types. Desert sand was best in terms of higher percent seed germination and also a shorter time taken for germination. Whereas vermicompost was better in terms of seedling growth parameters such as height, number of node per seedling, fresh and dry weights of seedlings and number of leaves per seedling. The study showed that the seed viability is very short with only 20 per cent germination after three months of storage. Seeds with fruit pulp resulted in to very poor germination as compared with de pulped seeds indicating an ecological adaptation for dispersal by fruit eating animals. Effect of pH on seed germination and seedling growth was maximum (100%) near neutral pH and declined both at lower and higher pH levels (20% at pH 4 and 50% at pH 10), the effect being more drastic at lower pH. Salvadora oleoides did not respond to stem cuttings and air layering vegetative propagation techniques.