Demucilaging Freshly Stored Seeds of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) Improves Seedling Emergence and Growth

Table 1

(a) Two-way ANOVA of effects of seed storage duration and seed mucilage manipulation on plant height and number of leaves of cocoa on seedlings grown in soil-filled nursery bags for 12 weeks. Seed storage durations for intact and demucilaged seeds were up to 12 and 27 days, respectively. Data was not taken at weeks at 10 and 12 weeks for both demucilaged and intact mucilage seeds (data are means and ). (b) Two-way ANOVA of effects of seed storage duration and seed mucilage manipulation on leaf area and plant girth of cocoa on seedlings grown in soil-filled nursery bags for 12 weeks. Seed storage duration for intact and demucilaged seeds were up to 12 and 27 days, respectively. Data was not taken at weeks at 10 and 12 weeks for both demucilaged and intact mucilage seeds (data are means and ).

(a)

Measured trait	Sampling week	Mucilage; status	Extracted seeds storage duration before sowing (d = days)										value	l.s.d. (5%)
			0 d	3 d	6 d	9 d	12 d	15 d	18 d	21 d	24 d	27 d
Plant; height (cm)	Week 2	Intact	15.04	8.27	2.91	3.53	3.99	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	2.457
		Demucilaged	15	15.02	15.08	14.65	14.77	14.69	15.13	14.48	13.3	5.67
	Week 4	Intact	16.96	10.04	3.4	6.85	5.57	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	2.905
		Demucilaged	17.17	17.01	16.98	17.02	17	16.6	17.44	16.43	14.99	6.53
	Week 6	Intact	17.75	9.41	3.89	7.8	5.63	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	3.167
		Demucilaged	17.91	18.07	17.77	17.33	17.23	19.38	18.75	17.72	16.09	7.32
	Week 8	Intact	19.14	9.43	2.53	5.61	5.6	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	3.096
		Demucilaged	19.17	19.19	18.73	18.33	18.91	20.96	20.67	19.16	17.15	7.9
	Week 10	Intact	21.99	9.96	0.79	5.48	4.77	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	3.082
		Demucilaged	22.48	22	21.66	20.27	21.02	—	—	—	—	—
	Week 12	Intact	24.41	10.11	0.73	4.75	3.99	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	3.37
		Demucilaged	25.13	24.93	24.24	23.9	24.91	—	—	—	—	—
Number of leaves	Week 2	Intact	4.3	2.7	0.9	0.9	1.1	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.779
		Demucilaged	4.5	4.3	4.3	4.2	4.2	3.9	5.2	4.3	3.7	1.3
	Week 4	Intact	5.9	3.7	1.4	2.4	1.6	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	1.249
		Demucilaged	6.2	6.3	6.3	6.0	6.0	7.9	7.8	6.5	4.4	2.2
	Week 6	Intact	9.3	3.9	1.7	2.9	1.9	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	1.53
		Demucilaged	9.8	9.2	9.2	9.3	9.5	8.2	7.9	6.8	4.7	2.3
	Week 8	Intact	11.0	2.7	0.4	2.7	2.5	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	1.61
		Demucilaged	11.7	11.0	10.7	9.3	11.1	10	9.7	10.3	6.6	4.4
	Week 10	Intact	17.1	3.1	0.1	2.1	2.5	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	2.585
		Demucilaged	17.3	17.1	17.0	17.1	16.0	—	—	—	—	—
	Week 12	Intact	19.9	2.9	0.3	0.8	1.9	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	2.159
		Demucilaged	20.1	20.1	19.5	19.0	19.9	—	—	—	—	—

(b)

Measured trait	Sampling week	Mucilage; status	Extracted seeds storage duration before sowing (d = days)										P value	l.s.d. (5%)
			0 d	3 d	6 d	9 d	12 d	15 d	18 d	21 d	25 d	27 d
Leaf area (cm^2)	Week 2	Intact	50.37	19.17	5.99	5.36	2.96	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	7.236
		Demucilaged	51.81	48.55	49.92	44.75	42.31	51.5	48.5	43.6	38.9	16.9
	Week 4	Intact	56.8	23.3	8.5	10.2	10.2	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	9.82
		Demucilaged	56.1	58.6	54.7	52.5	53.5	99.2	73.8	64.6	48.3	26.5
	Week 6	Intact	61.4	21.4	9.4	10.1	10	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	12.53
		Demucilaged	67.2	60.7	64	59.6	64.7	97.8	93.4	83.1	43.7	18.3
	Week 8	Intact	75.4	16.7	1.4	7.8	9.4	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	16.77
		Demucilaged	80.3	77.4	73.9	71.5	74.5	122.3	70	113.7	71.3	34.7
	Week 10	Intact	106.6	23.5	1.8	9.2	9.8	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	18.73
		Demucilaged	112.8	107.7	109.4	105.3	106.6	—	—	—	—	—
	Week 12	Intact	126.9	12.7	0.9	1.7	10.2	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	20.72
		Demucilaged	129.5	123.7	122.2	121	126.1	—	—	—	—	—
Plant girth (mm)	Week 2	Intact	3.3	2.1	0.8	1.4	0.8	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.6576
		Demucilaged	3.3	3.3	3.3	3.3	3.3	3.2	3.2	3.0	2.8	1.2
	Week 4	Intact	4.1	2.5	0.9	1.5	1.2	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.7247
		Demucilaged	4.2	4.3	4.0	3.7	3.9	4.1	4.1	3.6	3.1	1.7
	Week 6	Intact	4.9	2.8	0.9	1.0	1.6	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.871
		Demucilaged	4.9	4.9	4.6	4.6	4.4	4.5	4.8	4.1	3.5	1.8
	Week 8	Intact	5.1	2.7	1.0	1.5	1.5	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.916
		Demucilaged	5.5	5.5	5.0	4.7	5.0	5.9	5.7	5.2	3.9	2.0
	Week 10	Intact	6.1	2.9	0.6	1.5	0.8	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	0.929
		Demucilaged	6.2	6.1	6.0	5.7	6.0	—	—	—	—	—
	Week 12	Intact	6.8	2.7	0.3	1.7	1.2	—	—	—	—	—	<0.001	1.031
		Demucilaged	7.1	7.1	6.5	6.2	7.0	—	—	—	—	—