Evaluating the Role of Temperature on the Germination of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

Author(s): Abebe Sori Negewo

The experiment was conducted in September 2016 at Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute genebank, germination laboratory, Ethiopia to investigate the effect of temperature on the three accessions of sesame indicum L. viz., 9015, 9026 and 241335 and (25oc, 30oc, 35oc, 40oc) were used as the constant temperature gradient. The experiment was comprised of two factors, accession and temperature. And it was designed in factorial CRD with four replications. Analysis of variance showed that the main effects and the interaction effect were highly significant (P<0.001) for standard germination percentage. The result showed that, the highest germination (94%) was recorded at a temperature of 35oc though it was at par with the germination percentage obtained at a temperature of 30oc. However, at 40oc germination percentage decreased (86%). Whereas the lowest germination percentage (53%) was recorded at room temperature (25oc).This means that, higher temperatures are more suitable for germination of sesame accessions. Among the three sesame accessions considered for the study, the highest and the lowest germination percentage was obtained by (9015) and the (241335) respectively. This indicated that there is variation among the sesame accession.

Accession, Sesamum indicum, Temperature, Germination

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