- - International Journal of Environment, 1(1): 14–20 (2011) ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Comparative Growth Performance of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium Seedlings Raised in Nursery Bed, Polybag and Root Trainers Nure Ferdousee, Farhana Jabbar, Mohammed Kamal Hossain and ATM Rafiqul Hoque

Abstract Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit and Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp seedlings were grown in polybag, nursery bed and root trainers and investigated with an aim to select suitable containers for raising quality seedlings in large scale plantation programs. Seed germination and ISSN: 2186- 6872 (print) seedling growth were assessed for shoot length, root length, collar ISSN: 2186-0009 (online) diameter, fresh weight, dry matter production, leaf number and number of http://www.BENJapan.org/IJE nodules of the seedlings. Vigor index, quality index, imbibition period, energy period and root shoot ratio were also calculated for each treatment. Germination percentage was found better in nursery bed. Seedlings raised in polybags of 23 x 15 cm size revealed best performance in respect to germination and other growth parameters. Root-shoot ratio of L. leucocephala was higher in 12 x 15 cm polybag and the same for G. sepium ARTICLE HISTORY was higher in root trainer in comparison to other treatments. Polybag size Received: 13 April 2011 of 23 x 15 cm was found suitable in the nursery for quality seedling Revised: 16 May 2011 production of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium. Accepted: 24 May 2011 Keywords: Seedlings, Nursery bed, Plantations, Polybag, Root trainers. Published online: 29 July 2011  2011, International Journal of Environment. All rights reserved.

I. INTRODUCTION slopes and providing windbreaks, firebreaks, shade and ornamentation. Leucaena is In Bangladesh there exists huge gap between relatively resistant to the pests and diseases. demand and supply of forest products. To Moreover, in mixed cropping it is reported to be mitigate such gap between forest product an excellent combination with some economic demand and supply in sector, crops such as Banana [3]. Wood specific gravity Bangladesh Forest Department introduced of Leucaena leucocephala is about 0.50-0.70 Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit in August [4]. Leucaena wood has the potential to become 1977 from the Philippines [1]. Leucaena a major source for pulp and paper, round wood probably offers the widest assortment of uses and construction materials [5]. In some cases, compared to all tropical legumes. It can the wood of L. leucocephala is used for light produce nutritious forage, firewood, timber, furniture, handles of agricultural [6]. The and rich organic fertilizer. The wood, leaves, cylindrical bole is also used for posts, poles, twigs have a medicinal value as well as tannin [2]. rafts [2]. are used in some countries for It has diverse uses in regenerating tropical hill shade for black pepper, coffee, cocoa, quinine, and vanilla and for hedges [3]. Fuel wood AUTHORS’ INFO calorific value of this species is about Nure Ferdousee* 4200-4600 Kcal per kg [4]. In Bangladesh it e-mail: [email protected] was reported that the leaves, twigs and fruits Graduate School of Engineering and Science, are excellent fodder for domestic animals [2, 6, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan. 7, 8]. The powdered form of seeds is used as Farhana Jabbar poultry feed [7]. Young pods and seeds are e-mail: [email protected] cooked and eaten with rice [9]. Due to its Mohammed Kamal Hossain, multipurpose utility and wide range of e-mail: [email protected] ecological amplitudes (especially suitable to ATM Rafiqul Hoque Bangladesh Environment) the species is e-mail: [email protected] recommended for roadside as well as cropland Institute of Forestry and Environmental other than forest land [8]. The species has Sciences, Chittagong University, Chittagong potentiality in newly formed islands and 4331, Bangladesh. coastal areas of the country where immediate * Corresponding author plantations are essential for stability of soils

14 Growth performance of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium seedlings 15 and protect the country from unexpected II. MATERIALS AND METHODS cyclone and other natural calamities. The study was conducted in the nursery of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp is believed to the Institute of Forestry and Environmental be the most widely used cultivated Sciences, Chittagong University Campus, multipurpose after L. leucocephala. It is Bangladesh during the month of April – used to many parts of the tropics for fuel September, 2009. Forest top soil was mixed wood, live fences, fodder, soil improvement with decomposed cow dung in a ratio of 3:1. A and plantation shade. The leaves by their total of 240 poly bags and root-trainers were chemical composition have a high potential filled with the sieved potting media. Three for use as animal feeds and have better types of containers; nutrient digestive values than grasses [10]. The ability of Gliricidia to produce a wide T0: Root-trainer; range of products including poles, green T1: Poly bag of size 23 x 15 cm; manure and bee forage [5, 11] and its T2: Poly bag of size 12 x 15 cm and management under a variety of silvicultural T3: Traditional nursery bed (100 cm x 125 regimes both in the pure or woodlots and the cm) with the same potting media, were agroforestry mixtures have some advantages used to compare the seedling growth. over some other species. It grows in a wide [Note: The specific type of Spencer-Lamaire Root- variety of soils and climates up to 1000 m Trainer was used. The root-trainer was Fleet ‘B’ altitude [12]. Recently, Gliricidia was included block of four cells each 350 cc pot space with 20 as one of the 26 dry zone multipurpose tree cm depth. Ten blocks (40 cells) fit into a plastic species selected for species elimination trials fleet holder (also called basket or tray), size 40 by Hughes and Styles [13], and seeds have cm long x 26 cm wide x 13 cm height. 0.06 mm thick, white and transparent polybags and been distributed into some 145 trials in 46 Nursery bed of 5 m length and 1.25 m. wide was countries [14]. used]. However, the success of a plantation A randomized complete block design with program largely depends on prompt four replicates was used in the study. Seeds germination of seeds, growth parameters and were sown in the subplots of the nursery bed even on the containers in which seeds are directly and covered with thin layer of sand sown. Seedling raising at the nursery stage is and soil. Adequate care and maintenance were a very important aspect of the plantation taken from the time of seed sowing up to the program. The nursery technology should be harvesting of seedlings. in such a way that it will produce good The effects of seed sowing in different quality and handsome quantity of seedlings containers were assessed periodically through within a reasonable period of time. Moreover, counting germination and initial growth the technology should be cost effective. performance of the seedlings. At the age of Containers used for growing tree seedlings four months, five dominant seedlings from have passed through a number of each treatment were randomly selected and evolutionary shapes and designs over time. uprooted very carefully to record the desired Different kinds of containers i.e., earthen parameters. The seedlings were measured for pots and tubes, palmyrah and bamboo shoot length, collar diameter, root length and baskets, seed boxes, leaf, cups or ‘doras’, tin total oven dry weight (leaf, shoot and root trays, manure bricks and even cylindrical components). Leaf, shoot, root and nodules rolls of moss were used in the past [15]. Most were oven dried at 70OC for 48 hours until the of these containers, however, do not possess constant weight is obtained. Germination the chief requirements of lightness and DGS cheapness. They were, therefore, gradually energy, GE    GP10 was calculated replaced by light weight, durable, easy to N transport, cheap and resistant polythene using the formula of Djavanshir and Pourbeik [16]. is Germination Energy; stands bags. Polythene bags are available in different GE DGS for daily germination speed which is computed volumes. Scarce information is only available by dividing cumulative germination percentage as to which size and what type of container by the number of days since beginning of the should be used to obtain optimum growth of tests; n stands for frequency or number of the seedlings. Present investigation was made DGS that are calculated during the test and to find the suitable size of the container to GP is used for germination percentage. Vigor obtain optimum growth of L. leucocephala Index (Vigor Index = Germination percentage x and G. sepium seedlings in the nursery. seedling length) was calculated according to N Ferdusee et al. - 16

Abdul-Baki and J.D. Anderson [17]. The highest for T1 treatment followed by T3, T0 and Quality Index (QI) [Weight / (Height Diameter T2 treatments. quotient + Shoot-Root ratio)] of the seedlings was computed as developed by Dickson [18]. 120 The germination and growth data were statistically analyzed by using SPSS. Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used for 100 determining the morphological growth T0 T1 variation. 80 T2 T3 III. RESULTS 60 A. Seed germination Leucaena leucocephala attained 100% 40

germination within 8 days energy period (EP) in % Germination Meandaily Mean Daily Germination T3 treatment followed by T0 (Germ. 59%, EP 11 20 days), T2 (Germ. 55%, EP 3 days) and T1 (Germ. 34%, EP 7 days) treatment. Seeds in T0 0 treatment (root trainers) took longer time 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 (energy period 11 days) comparison to other TimeTime after sawingsawing (days) (Days) containers (Table 1). Mean daily germination Fig. 1. Mean daily germination percent of Leucaena percent was highest at the 8th day after sowing leucocephala seeds in different containers. in T2 treatment (Fig. 1). The cumulative germination percent for treatment T3 rises sharply from the 4th to 12th days and remains constant till 24th day. The cumulative Table 2. Germination percentage, imbibition, germination percent remains highest for T germination period and energy period of Gliricidia 3 sepium seeds.

treatment followed by T0, T1 and T2 treatments.

Germination Germination Energy Table 1. Germination percentage, imbibition, (%) Period Period

germination period and energy period of Leucaena (Days)

(Days) Imbibition

leucocephala seeds. Treatment

T0 84.0 b* 4 7 3

Germination Germination Energy (%) Period Period T1 100.0 a 4 7 3 (Days)

T2 92.0 ab 3 7 4

(Days) Imbibition Treatment T3 100.0 a 4 8 4

T0 59.0b* 4 15 11 *Means followed by the same letter (s) are not significantly different at a significance level of 5 %. T1 34.0c 6 13 7

b T2 55.0 5 8 3 120

T3 100.0a 5 13 8 100 *Means followed by the same letter (s) are not significantly

T0 different at a significance level of 5 %. T1 80 T2 T3 Gliricidia sepium attained 100% germination within 3 days energy period in T1 treatment 60 followed by T3 (Germ. 100%, EP 4 days), T2 (Germ. 92%, EP 4 days) and T0 (Germ. 84%, EP 40 3 days) treatment (Table 2). Mean daily % Germination Meandaily th

germination percent was highest at the 8 days 20 Mean Daily Germination (%) after sowing in T1 treatment (Fig. 2). The seeds of Gliricidia sepium germinated very quickly 0 within the shorter period of time. The 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 cumulative germination percent for treatment TimeTime after after sawing sawing (days) (Days) T rises sharply from the 4th to 8th days and 1 Fig. 2. Mean daily germination percent of remains constant until 24th day. The Gliricidia sepium seeds in different containers. cumulative germination percent remains Growth performance of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium seedlings

Growth performance of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium seedlings 17

B. Growth performance of the seedlings The mean total length of the seedlings of G. sepium was highest (112.3 cm) in T followed The morphological parameters of Leucaena 1 by T T and T (Table 5). Collar diameter of leucocephala seedlings recorded in different 3, 2 0 the seedlings was highest (7.0 mm) in T treatments are shown in Table 3. The mean 0 followed by T and is significantly different total length of the seedlings of L. leucocephala 3 from T and T (Table 6) The mean number of was highest (95.7 cm) in T followed by T T T . 2 1 . 1 0, 3, 2 leaves was highest in T (24) followed by T T Collar diameter of L. leucocephala was highest 3 3, 2 and T0. Highest (14690) vigor index was found in T1 (8.4 mm) followed by T0 and is significantly in T1 followed by T3, T2 and T0. different from T3 and T2 (Table 3). However, the mean number of leaves were same (11) in T0, T1 and T3 and not significantly different from T2 Table 5. Comparative morphological study of 4 (10). Highest (10460) vigor index was found in months old Gliricidia sepium seedlings in different containers. T3 followed by T0, T1 and T2.

The oven dry weights of L. leucocephala Length seedling components (shoot, leaf, and root) are Collar Vigor Leaf (cm) shown in Table 4. Highest mean shoot dry Dia Index no. (mm) weight (18.5g), root dry weight (12.28g) and Shoot Root Total

leaf dry wt (16.3g) of the seedlings was Treatment recorded in T1 treatment. Highest total dry b* a b a c b weight was recorded highest (47.08g) in T1 T0 69.3 39.7 106.0 7.0 8895.6 16.0 followed by T0, T2. T3. Quality Index (3.65) was a a a b a a found highest in T1 followed by T0, T2. T3. T1 112.3 34.7 147.0 5.0 14690.0 22.0 Highest root/shoot ratio was recorded in T2 T2 94.7ab 30.7a 125.3ab 5.4b 11527.6bc 22.0a followed by T0, T1. T3 but the differences were not significantly different at 5% (Table 4). T3 108.7a 30.7a 139.3a 6.2ab 13930.0ab 24.0a

Table 3. Comparative morphological study of 4 *Means followed by the same letter(s) are not significantly months old Leucaena leucocephala seedlings in different at a significance level of 5% different containers

Table 6. Dry weight of different components, quality Length(cm) Collar Vigor index, and root/shoot ratio of 4 months old Dia Index Gliricidia sepium seedlings in different containers. (mm)

Shoot Root Total

Leaf no. Leaf

Treatment Oven-dry weight R/S (g) T0 73.0ab* 35.7b 108.7ab 5.1ab 6407.4b 11.0b

1 a a a a c b Index

T 95.7 47.0 142.3 8.4 4838.2 11.0 Shoot Root Leaf Total Quality Treatment T2 62.7b 25.0b 87.7b 4.5b 4838.0c 10.0b

T0 16.42b 12.75a 17.89b 47.06b 4.21 0.78 ns T3 71.3ab 33.3ab 104.7ab 4.8b 10460.0a 11.0b *Means followed by the same letter (s) are not significantly a b a a different at a significance level of 5 % T1 39.82 9.52 38.31 87.65 1.36 0.24 ns

T2 28.32ab 8.79b 29.94ab 67.05ab 3.23 0.31 ns Table 4. Dry weight of different components, quality index, and root/shoot ratio of 4 months old Leucaena leucocephala seedlings in different T3 25.81ab 9.62b 29.35ab 64.78ab 3.20 0.37 ns containers. *Means followed by the same letter(s) are not significantly

different at a significance level of 5%.

Oven-dry weight R/S

(g) Comparative nodulation behavior recorded

Shoot Root Leaf Total Index Quality Quality for Leucaena leucocephala in different Treatment containers is shown in Table 7. Highest (50) T0 8.3b 5.56b 5.97b 19.83b 1.25 0.67 ns nodules and maximum dry weight (0.16g) was

T1 18.5a 12.28a 16.3a 47.08a 3.65 0.66 ns recorded in T1. The lowest (8) nodule with 0.07g wt. was recorded in T0. Similar T2 3.81b 3.29b 3.87b 10.97c 0.73 0.86 ns observations were recorded for Gliricidia

T3 4.88b 1.83b 3.41b 10.12c 0.58 0.38 ns sepium (Table 8). *Means followed by the same letter(s) are not significantly different at a significance level of 5% N Ferdusee et al. - 18

Table 7. Comparative nodulation study of 4 months number of nodules and the biomass old Leucaena leucocephala seedlings in different parameters in comparison to other treatments. containers This may be due to the limited space available to the root system in root trainers [23]. Treatments Nodule Seedlings can better be compared on the basis Nodule Fresh wt. Dry wt. of quality parameters, rather than on actual number (g) (g) values on height or collar diameter. Seedling T0 8.0d* 0.14c 0.07b quality specifications have traditionally been based on certain morphological characters T1 50.0a 0.41a 0.16a such as root/shoot ratio and some other root T2 19.0c 0.25b 0.09b features [24-27]. The root /shoot ratio indicates the higher amount of root production b b b T3 38.0 0.24 0.06 which is also a pre-requisite for seedling *Means followed by the same letter(s) are not significantly establishment through anchorage and more different at a significance level of 5%. absorption of nutrients [28]. Poor nodulation was observed in seedlings raised in root Table 8. Comparative nodulation study of 4 months trainers. Root trainer raised seedlings of G. old Gliricidia sepium seedlings in different sepium registered the maximum values on containers root/shoot ratio among the treatments. Higher values on root/shoot ratio were observed in Treatments Nodule seedlings raised on polybags or root trainer in Nodule Fresh wt. Dry wt. comparison to seedlings raised on nursery number (g) (g) beds. On the other hand, several researchers T0 42.0ab* 0.26b 0.11a found suitable container size for particular T1 52.0a 0.38a 0.15a species such as 30 x 20 cm for Cocoa [29], 30

T2 20.0b 0.19b 0.05b x 15 cm for Santalum albam [30], 26 x 12.6

T3 55.0a 0.42a 0.13a cm for Azadirachta indica [31] and 25 x 15 cm *Means followed by the same letter(s) are not significantly for Albizia lebbeck [32]. However, the different at a significance level of 5% treatments when compared on the basis of seedling quality parameters in different IV. DISCUSSION containers, 23 x 15 cm size container is found the best in order to obtain vigorous seedlings Significant differences were observed for all capable of surviving under stress nursery the growth parameters among containers, condition. root-trainers and seedlings grown in nursery bed. It is revealed that the size of the container has apparent influence on all the characters, V. CONCLUSION e.g. size, root length, shoot height, shoot collar Growth performance of seedlings increased diameter, number of leaves, number of nodules, with the increase of polybag sizes in root and shoot fresh weights, root and shoot comparison to nursery bed and root trainers. dry weights, and quality index, vigor index, Longer containers have significant influence root/shoot ratios throughout the growth period on the survival, height and nodule formation of the seedlings. Container grown seedlings under nursery conditions. The seedlings with increased root lengths perform better on raised in root trainers showed poor adverse sites than do bare root seedlings [19] performance in comparison to other and they survive better under drought treatments. conditions [20]. Milks et al., [21] reported that For quality seedlings, polybags of T1 plants growing in small containers have growth treatment (23 x 15 cm size) produce the best problems due to poor aeration or low water seedlings followed by T2 (12 x 15 cm), T3 holding capacity of the growing medium. (nursery bed) and T0 (root trainer) treatment. Aeration porosity is considered to be the most T1 treatment may be recommended to raise important physical property as growing the quality seedlings for large scale medium [22]. The container of 23 x 15 cm size plantations in short time due to its lower cost recorded superiority over 12 x 15 cm size involvement. For successful and polythene containers and then nursery bed and programs and maximum survival the seedlings grown in the root trainer for the above growth parameters of the seedlings. The of seedlings in the field, the bigger size poly seedlings raised in root trainers have shown bags as well as the quality seedlings are poor performance for height, collar diameter, essential in field planting. So, after keeping cost factors in consideration polybags of bigger Growth performance of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium seedlings 19

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© 2011, International Journal of Environment, 1(1): 14–20