Abstract

Nursery experiments conducted at the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) nursery at Palappilly in India, showed significant differences between and within seeds collected from 4 groups of teak trees (plus trees, plantations, seed stands and seed orchards) with regard to percentage germination, and production of total and plantable seedlings. Variations between trees were also noted. There were highly significant correlations between percentage germination and total and plantable seedlings. Hence, if an increased number of plantable seedlings is the objective, seeds with higher germinability are preferable irrespective of the genetic superiority of the source of seeds. Germination varied from 0. 97 to 33 percent, out of which 80-100 percent of seedlings survived and 69-97 percent of seedlings were plantable. Through proper management of the nursery, the proportion of plantable sized seedlings can be raised to about 90 percent of the total seedlings in the nursery