Juniperus procera Endl. is economically important timber species, but its populations are extremely small and fragmented in its natural habitat, thus, calling for immediate ex situ conservation. Here we examined the effects of seed sources and storage temperature on the longevity of Juniperus procera seed lots through collection and preservation of seeds in seed banks. Seeds were collected from nine sites across the species natural distribution in Ethiopia and stored in four warehouses: modern cold room (5°C), mud house (15°C), concrete block house (17°C) or corrugated iron house (20°C) for 42 months. Every three months, a random sample of stored seeds were drawn and tested for germination. A highly significant variation (p < 0.01) in germination of stored seeds was observed among different storage environments, seed lots, and duration of storage. Over the storage period, seeds stored in the cold room had the highest mean percentage germination, followed by the mud house, corrugated house and blocket house. The cold room (41%) and the mud house (38%) maintained the same level of germination as the intitial germination of the seedlotds (42%). The variation in longevity of stored seeds was significnatly correlated with the initial germination of seed lots (r > 0.80; p < 0.01). Cold storage also resulted in enhancement of germination through its stratification effect that terminated the non-deep Responsible editor: Chai Ruihai physiological dormancy of juniper seeds. In conclusion, seed lots with good initial germination can be effectively stored in cold room (5°C) up to four years. In the absence of modern cold stores, mud houses can be used as a good alternative to store seeds at local level.

to 17 January, 2011 to investigate the effect of manure and different levels of nitrogen on yield and yield attributed traits. A local garlic cultivar was used for the study. The treatments consisted of four levels of nitrogen (0, 50,100 and 150 kg/ha) and three levels of goat manure (0, 10 and 20 t/ha). The experiment was laid out as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) in a factorial arrangement and replicated three times. The results revealed that interaction effects of nitrogen and manure significantly (P<0.05) influenced plant height, mean fresh bulb weight, mean clove weight, total bulb yield, fresh biomass yield, percent bulb dry matter yield and harvest index. While neither the combined nor the main effects of manure and nitrogen had significant effect (P>0.05) on leaf number. However, the combined application of 50 kg/ha N and 10 t/ha manure significantly (P<0.05) increased mean fresh bulb weight, mean clove weight, total bulb yield, and harvest index. Maximum yield (27.8 t/ha) was recorded at the combined application of 50 kg/ ha N and 10 t/ha manure. It can, thus, be concluded that for short term garlic production, smallholder farmers could not only get optimum yield of garlic from the combined application of 50 kg/ha N plus 10 t manure/ha but also could save considerably on inorganic fertilizers that can be used for increasing yield of other crops to enhance food security and income.

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