EFFECT OF SEED SIZE AND SOURCE ON EARLY SEEDLING GROWTH OF TERMINALIA IVORENSIS (CHEV.)

A nursery experiment was conducted to study variations in four different sources of Terminalia ivorensis. Seeds were collected from Agodi and FRIN, while seeds from Ifon and Owena were collected from Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria seed store. This study was carried out at West African Hardwoods Improvement Project (WAHIP) nursery at the headquarters of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan. Assessment of growth parameters such as the seedling height, collar diameter, number of leaves and dry weight in all the sources for sixteen weeks was studied. Agodi seeds had the highest diameter of 7.86mm followed by Ifon seeds with 6.87mm while Owena and FRIN recorded 6.82mm. Ifon had highest height value (21.33cm) followed by 21.22cm in Agodi, 21.09cm in FRIN and Owena had the minimum height (19.40cm). Ifon had highest collar diameter with 3.08mm and Agodi had the minimum collar diameter of 2.83mm out of all. The highest leaf number was also in Ifon with mean 14.98 followed by 13.87 in Owena. FRIN produced the least number of leaves (13.66). Ifon had the highest NAR value of 1.54g/cm^2/wk and the least value was observed in Agodi with 0.06 g/cm^2/wk. Also Agodi had the highest RGR of 2.42g/wk with Ifon having the least value of 0.28g/wk. The average performance of the sources studied with regards to their height and diameter growth, leaf production and leaf area extension showed that seedlings raised from Ifon seedlots performed best. Those from Agodi source ranked second and Owena source was the poorest. In spite of poor performance of Owena in the study, it had resistant against Eryodiv myth an insect that attack T.ivorensis at early stage.