Crop Improvement of Nutmeg (E)
An important problem in nutmeg cultivation is the segregation of seedlings into male and female plants resulting in about 50% unproductive male trees. Though there has been several claims that sex could be determined at seedling stage on the basis of leaf form and venation, colour of young sprouts, vigour of seedlings and shape of calcium oxalate crystals on leaf epidermis, none of them is sufficiently reliable. The only alternative is to adopt vegetative propagation either by top-working male plants or using budded or grafted plants.
