Utilizing Polyembryony in Fluted Pumpkin ( Telfairia occdentalis Hook F.) Seed Multiplication

摘要

An experiment was conducted at the Western Farm of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture,Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria to investigate the prospect of taking advantage of the phenomenon ofpolyembryony in obtaining more than one stand from single seeds of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalisHook f.) and also to compare the agronomic performance of plants raised from whole, half and quarter seeds.Results obtained shows that it is possible to obtain multiple seedlings from single seeds of fluted pumpkinthrough exploiting the phenomenon of polyembryony in the crop. Whole seed plants were, however,consistently better than both half and quarter seed plants (p<0.05). The treatments were evaluated in respectof eight agronomic characters, namely days to shoot emergence, establishment count, number of branches perplant, number of leaves per plant, length of shoot, stem girth, leaf area,and fresh vegetable weight at harvest.Whereas, it is possible to obtain multiple stands from single seeds of fluted pumpkin through polyembryony,whole seeds gave a better crop than either half or quarter seeds.