Effects of seed germination ecology and its cleaning stage on in vitro seed germination performance of two indigenous bamboo species in Ethiopia.

Among the germination affecting factors, germination ecology (GME) and seed cleaning stage (SCS) are not well investigated. Hence, this study was initiated to evaluate the GME and SCS effect on the seed germination performance of two indigenous bamboo species. Pure and impure seed samples were taken from the cold room which is adjusted to 5 °C. Then they were sown on prepared media under different conditions. Then the GP, MGT, and PV data were computed and then subjected to ANOVA. The ANOVA showed that the interaction effect of genotype, GME treatments, and SCS was very high (P = 0.0001) significant for all studied parameters. The germination pattern differences were also observed in SCS and GME treatments for both species. Significantly higher GP (59%) and PV (8.4) were recorded in pure seeds sowed on paper at ambient temperature (T1) for O. abyssinica. On the same GME, Y. alpina gave the maximum GP (38%) and PV (2.3) using pure seed. However, significantly higher MGT (9) was recorded on GME T1 and T2 using impure seed. Hence, pure seed sowed on paper at ambient temperature is advisable for in vitro germination test. However, GME having sand media at optimum temperature is recommended due to cost-effectiveness and is applicable at the community level for seedling production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]