Improving the germination of Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa seeds.

An investigation on how to improve the germination of the seeds of the bush mango Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa (= I. Wombulu) was carried out using various soil media in planting depulped and undepulped and, dried and non-dried fruits in polythene bags. The results showed that depulping of fruits, and drying for two days before planting in a 1:1 mixture of sawdust (SD) and forest top soil (TS) enhanced the production of a large quantity of uniform vigorously growing seedlings during the period of investigation. These methods significantly (P £ 0.05) increased seed germination and thus could be used to solve the age long problem of poor germination encountered by growers of the bush mango Irvingia gabonensis var. excelsa. Keywords: Irvingia gabonensis, depulping, germination media, sawdust, topsoi