Abstract :
Germination marks the beginning of the independent growth and existence of seeds or other organs of a plant. Planting depth has to do with the extent of seed burial in soil or other organic components which are aimed at achieving germination. Six crops studied were maize, rice, melon, beans, groundnut and okra. This experiment was carried out at the Botanical Garden of Department of Botany in Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria and seed viability tests gave; maize (95%), rice (94%), melon (90%), beans (98%), groundnut (90%) and okra (89%), respectively. Then 10 seeds were sown at each potted bag and replicated by 10 more bags for each crop type to give 100 seeds for each crop at planting depths of 0cm, 2cm, 5cm, 7cm, 10cm and 15cm respectively. At the end of the study, it was found that planting depths affected seed germination in all studied crops since germination percentages decreased with increasing planting depths with the highest germination rate at 0cm (surface) planting level. The current study has shown that planting depths do affect germination percentages of seeded crops like maize, rice, melon, beans, groundnut and okra, though at different rates. Generally, it has been found that lower planting depths favoured maximum germination in the crops studied while increasing planting depths caused reductions in the germination percentages of such crops. Recommended optimum planting depths should be 5cm for maize, rice and melon while 2cm was recommended for beans, groundnut and okra, respectively.
Keyword :
Dormancy, Germination percentages, Planting depths.