Abstract

The importance of arecanut industry in the economy of the country, has been recognised only recently. Except undertaking certain measures for combating some important diseases of the palm, very little work has been done regarding the fundamental breeding or agronomic aspects of this crop, though it occupies a total area of about 2,60,000 acres. Amongst the agronomic practices followed in the cultivation of this crop, the treatments given to the seeds before sowing is observed to be of considerable importance. The seed arecanuts are usually partially dried before sowing or allowing them to germinate. It is not known if it is really essential to dry the nuts or to give a sort of dormancy period before sowing them, to get a successful germination. It is also believed that partial drying of nuts helps to disintegrate the husk at a later stage (when the nuts are irrigated) and ensures easy emergence of sprouts. Hence, with the object of determining the necessity or otherwise of partial drying of nuts to get successful germination of nuts, an experiment was conducted. The data collected and the results achieved are presented in this paper.

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