Eunice Essel, Isaac K Asante and Ebenezer Laing
Keywords: Colchicine, seed germination, plant growth, yield traits, cowpea.
Abstract: The study investigated the effect of colchicine on germination of cowpea seeds, as well as morphological and selected growth traits of cowpea plant (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp). Dry cowpea seeds were treated with colchicine at concentrations of 0.05g/dl, 0.10g/dl, 0.15g/dl and 0.20g/dl. Quantitative characters such as percentage germination, plant height, number of leaves, length of longest branches, number of primary branches, pod and seed yield were measured. Percentage germination was high in the control (89.3) and0.05g/dl (90.2) of first generation of colchicine treatment (C1). Significant differences (P<0.05) were recorded in the mean of most of the quantitative characters such as number of leaves, branches and seeds per plant in some of the colchicine treatments in the study.
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