Germination parameters of Boswellia sacra Flueck. seeds and the possibility of their improvement by sorting

Abstract

The aim of this study was to 1/ evaluate basic germination characteristics of Boswellia sacra seeds in two years of maturation (2018 and 2020), which differed in weather conditions before flowering and fruiting, 2/ find out the reason why the majority of the seeds do not germinate, and 3/ to determine whether seed sorting by floating effectively removes empty seeds. Two seed sets collected in 2018 and 2020 were germinated in trials to evaluate basic germination characteristics for unsorted seeds and seeds after 7- and 24-hours of soaking in water. The higher germination rate of seeds was reached for the set collected in 2018 compared to the one from 2020; sedimented up to 7 h of soaking in water seed set had the highest germination rate; seeds germinated quickly; most seeds germinated up to 4 days from the beginning of the germination test. To support the best result of germination rate of any set of seeds, we recommend seed soaking in water for about 7 h to sort out empty seeds which proportion could be relatively high.