Assessment of Germination Percentage and Seedling Vigour in Selected Maize Genotypes in Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

Assessment of seedling vigour in six selected maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes was evaluated in the screen house of the Department of Crop Production and Protection, at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Federal University Wukari, Taraba State during the 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons. The experiment was laid out in a complete randomized design (CRD) and replicated thrice. Seed vigour indicators were number of sprouting, mean emergence time, germination percentage, seedling fresh weight (g), seedling dry weight (g), seedling root length (cm), seedling vigour index I and seedling vigour index II. The seed matrices measured were hundred seed weight (g), seed width (mm), seed length and seed thickness (mm). From the results obtained, the strong, positive and significant (1.00) relationship between the 100 seed weight and seedling germination percentage indicated that, maize germination is mostly determined by its size.  Further, the most effective high vigour indicators are root length, seedling length, germination percentage, mean emergence time and number of sprouting at 4 days. However, M1155 recorded the highest seedling (72.33), with the highest corresponding germination percentage of 98%.