Effect of Storage, Temperature and Pre-treatment on Germination of Melia azedarach L. Seed

This study was performed to investigate the effects of storage, temperature, and pre-treatments on the germination of Melia azedarach seeds collected from Buan, Jeonju, and Jeju provenance. M. azedarach seeds stored with or without pericarp in the ground, which collected from Buan provenance evidenced the highest germination percentage (PG, %) and the shortest time to first germination (days). The seeds collected from Jeonju and Jeju provenance were placed at both six continuous temperatures (15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and ) and two alternating temperatures ( and ) for seed incubation. The results showed a significant effect for temperature of seed incubation. The seeds incubated at had the highest PG among the continuous temperatures and germinated significantly more at the two alternating temperatures than at . Concerning mean germination time (MGT), the seeds incubated at evidenced the shortest germinations among the continuous temperatures while those at the alternating temperatures germinated for a shorter period than those at . The germination rate (GR) and germination performance index (GPI) were similar to PG. The seeds collected from Jeonju provenance were treated using five pre-sowing treatments (scarification, scarifcation+, scarification+, , and ) prior to the germination experiments. Compared with the intact seeds (control), most of the pre-treatments were significantly (especially scarification+ 100 ppm and scarification+ 1.0%) higher in PG, GR, and GPI, as well as shorter in MGT.