Effect of Nursery Practices on Seedling Survival and Growth of Selected Miombo Tree Species, Morogoro, Tanzania

background

This study investigates the effects of shade, polythene tube diameter and height, and soil mixtures on seedling survival and growth of five Miombo tree species in Morogoro, Tanzania.

Research Goals & Methods

For each species, two nursery experiments were carried out. That is a) degree of shading, pot diameter and height trial, which adopted a split-split plot design with three replications and b) nursery soil mixtures adopted a completely randomized block design with three replications. 

Conclusions & Takeaways

The results showed that shading significantly improved the survival of only D. condylocarpon and P. angolensis and slightly improved seedling survival for the rest the species, though not significantly.  Polythene tube height had no significant effects on seedling survival. However, the effects of shade and polythene tube diameters had profound effects on seedling survival. Growing seedlings under bamboo shade improved seedling diameter and height, though not always statistically significant in this study. The exception was D. condylocarpon, where diameter growth was the same for seedlings grown under shade and under direct sunlight with slight improvement in height growth under shade.