Dormancy studies on Indian horse-chestnut (Aesculus indica Colebr.) under Kashmir conditions

Studies were carried out in the Faculty of Forestry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar of India during 2006 and 2007. The Indian horse-chestnut (Aesculus indica Colebr.), locally known as "Hanudun", is one of the more important broad-leaved tree species of the Kashmir valley. No deep dormancy was observed in mature seeds. However, the seeds remained dormant due to unfavorable environmental conditions prevailing after seed dispersal. Both treatments of cold stratification were significantly superior to the control conditions, i.e., no stratification which showed no germination during the test period of 30 d. The effects of the two treatments (cold stratification for 15 or 30 d) also differed significantly. Germination was found to increase with an increase in the time of cold stratification. Chilling treatments of seeds for 30 d showed maximum germination of 80%, requiring the shortest time for germination, i.e., 20.51 d with a maximum evaluated germination value of 14.88. The other treatment with 15 d chilling showed lower germination of 60%, requiring a maximum number of germination days (27.31 d) with lower germination value of 3.26.