Seed Dormancy Breaking and Germination Rate Improvement in Mucuna (Mucuna bracteata) Seeds using Mechanical and Fungicide Treatments

Abstract

Mucuna (Mucuna bracteata) is a cover crop for young plants in oil palm plantations. However, it has a very low germination rate due to its hard outer shell and fungi infestation after germination. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the effectivity of mechanical treatment combined with 15-min of Dithane M-45 treatment to improve the germination rate of Mucuna’s seed and its seedling growth. The experiment was performed with the combination of two factors: mechanical treatment and Dithane M-45 (0.00 g/L, 0.05 g/Lg, 0.10 g/L and 0.15 g/L) in pentaplicate for each group. The seeds were sowed on wet cotton, and the data was analyzed using ANOVA (α = 0.05) followed by DMRT (α = 0.05). The shell nicking seed followed by a 0.10 g/L of Dithane M-45 treatment resulted in the best germination rate (88 ± 9.1%), the fastest germination speed (6.29 ± 0.65 %), the shortest mean germination time (4.25 ± 0.87 days), the longest shoot, and the highest of fresh and dry biomass for both shoot and root of the seedlings. Therefore, the shell nicking and fungicide immersion before sowing the seeds could improve Mucuna's germination and seedling growth.