Effect of irrigation interval on growth and biomass of mahogany (<em>Swietenia macrophylla</em> King, Meliaceae) seedlings

Abstract

Swietenia macrophylla King. also known as bigleaf mahogany, is a tropical tree species native to Central and South America. Nursery seedling is a base of good plantation, so ifnurseryseeding is better further plantation is better. An irrigation is a key factor for growth of seedling. If irrigationschedule is disturbed than growth of seedling also disturbs. Therefore,looking to the importance of effect of irrigation, this experiment wascarried out at Forestry College, NAU, Navsari. An attempt has been made to assess the growth and biomass accumulation in the seedlings of Swietenia macrophylla irrigated at three intervals under nursery.There were three irrigation intervals,viz.,daily, alternate and weekly taken as treatment with CRD design and repeated six times. The best performance in terms of growth as well as dry weight accumulation was observed in daily irrigation followed by alternate day irrigation interval. While, it was minimum in weekly irrigation interval. The results revealed that the growth and dry weight accumulation in S. macrophylla was increased by increasing frequency of irrigation.