The study of germination and seedling growth characteristics of Neem under different soil and environment conditions was undertaken. The seed germination started 8 days after sowing in commercial bed soil, whereas, delayed germination was observed in sandy-loam (15 days) and sandy (19 days) soil. The highest germination (73.33%) was observed in commercial bed soil in green house, whereas, the lowest germination was observed in sandy soil (16.67%) and sandy-loam soil (8.33%). The seeds in the open field (sandy soil) also showed poor (10%) germination. The mean number of germination seed/day (GD) and seed germination vigor rate (GV) both were highest in the commercial bed soil with 0.733% and 16.67% respectively in the green house, whereas sandy and sandy-loam soil in green house and open field (sandy soil) all showed much lower GD and GV values. The seedling characteristics of nursery revealed that the seedling grown in the growth chamber in commercial bed soil was significantly higher in all the parameters comparing to others grown in green house and open field. The growth was nearly 7 fold in the chamber compared to that of the green house nursery observed in three months old seedlings. Likewise, HPLC analysis revealed that the green house grown seedling contain higher quantity of pigments compare to the chamber grown seedlings. Among the soils used the commercial soil alone or in combination with sandy and sandy-loam soil in the ratio of 2:1:1 respectively with the temperature of 27±2℃ showed better for Neem nursery preparation.
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MATERIAL AND METHODS
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LITERATURE CITED