STUDY OF SEEDLING EMERGENCE IN A PRE-NURSERY ENVIRONMENT OF 14 GENOTYPES OF OIL PALM (ELAEIS GUINEENSIS J.) WITH VARYING SENSITIVITY TO WATER DEFICIT

Objectives: The germination of oil palm seeds into seedlings in a pre-nursery setting is of crucial importance, as it allows us to assess the quality, growth vigor, and success of future nursery plants, whether for a single genotype or several genotypes studied. Our work will consist of studying, in a pre-nursery setting under natural conditions, the germination of seeds into seedlings of 14 high-producing genotypes of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis J.), exhibiting varying sensitivities to water deficit. 
Methodology and Results: The trial was conducted in a pre-nursery setting at the CNRA (National Center for Agricultural Research) in La Mer (La Mer), under natural conditions. A completely randomized Fisher block design with three replicates of seeds from the 14 genotypes was set up. The plant material consisted of seedlings grown from germinated seeds of the genotypes that had been transplanted (67 germinated seeds per genotype per replicate, therefore 201 seeds for one genotype across the three replicates or blocks). Measurements of growth morphological parameters were taken during the 3 months following seedling emergence. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Genotypes G26(T) and G19(S) had the highest number of seedling emergences, closely followed by genotypes G9(T) and G22(S). Genotype G26(T) had the highest number of first-leaf emergences, closely followed by genotypes G9(T), G19(S), and G22(S). All genotypes had low seedling mortality on day 90 after sowing, but the number of live seedlings was highest in genotypes G26(T) and G19(S), followed by G24(T) and G22(S). Conversely, genotypes G5(T), G14(S), and G21(S) exhibited the highest seedling mortality. 
Conclusions and outlook: Multivariate analyses (PCA) revealed that genotypes identified as tolerant or sensitive to water deficit share common morphological characteristics. Genotypes G26(T) and G19(S) demonstrated the best morphological performance, followed by genotypes G22(S), G24(T), G9(T), G10(T), G25(T), and G7(T). However, it was observed that the best morphological performance was more pronounced in genotypes identified as tolerant, than sensitive to water.