Studies on seed germination and seedling emergence in Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit cv. Peru

In the first of two experiments, germination of seeds of leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala cv. Peru) which had been stored for between 270 and 3955 days was examined, following scarification with hot water (80 degrees C) for 0, 21/2, 5 or 10 minutes. In the second trial, soil samples obtained from Samaru, Jos and Sokoto in Nigeria were used to investigate the effect of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 cm depth of placement in plastic pots on seedling emergence of 300-day old leucaena seeds subsequent to scarification. Germination declined significantly (P < 0.001) with the age of seed, was generally improved by hot water treatment and was significantly (P < 0.001) higher in seeds immersed for 10 minutes than for any other duration. The optimum depth of sowing appeared to be 2 cm for the heavier soils from Samaru and Jos while 6 cm was most favourable for the soil from Sokoto. Problems associated with the 0 and 10 cm depths of sowing are highlighted.