An Improved Technique for Enhancing the Germination and Survival Rate of Seedlings of <i>Santalum album</i> L. in Nursery

T. Yuvaraj; M. Vairavan; Smitha G. Nair; Modhumitha Dasgupta; Sivakumar Veerasamy

doi:10.36808/if/2025/v151i11/170763

An Improved Technique for Enhancing the Germination and Survival Rate of Seedlings of Santalum album L. in Nursery

Authors

T. Yuvaraj ICFRE- Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore - 641003, Tamil Nadu
M. Vairavan ICFRE- Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore - 641003, Tamil Nadu
Smitha G. Nair College of Forestry, OUAT, Bhubaneswar 751003
Modhumitha Dasgupta ICFRE- Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore - 641003, Tamil Nadu
Sivakumar Veerasamy ICFRE- Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore - 641003, Tamil Nadu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2025/v151i11/170763

Keywords:

Sandalwood, Germination, Plant per cent, Gibberellic acid.

Abstract

Indian sandalwood germination and seedling establishment is tricky and taxing due to an array of issues like poor germination rate, prolonged germination period, slow rate of establishment of seedlings in the field, morphophysiological dormancy, and host requirement (Chitra and Jijeesh, 2021). Transplanting shock and delayed establishment often result in less than 10 per cent plant survival. The present study attempted two methods of germination for sandal; sowing the seeds in sand mother beds and direct dibbling of seeds into the polybags with the Casuarina clone as the host plant, with an objective of improving the plant percentage. The germination and establishment were better in polybag-sown seed (41.3%; 31.3%) than in the mother bed sown seed lots (25.3%; 8.8%). About a 64% increase in germination was observed when sowing was carried out directly into polybags.

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