Not like other trees species, Indian sandalwood (S. album) nurseries needs more space due to the requirement of spaces for seedling hosts and field hosts in addition to the space required for the sandalwood seedlings. Therefore the number of seedlings that can be raised in a sandalwood nursery is comparatively low. Moreover, sandalwood seeds can be obtained only twice per year and due to those reasons, storage of seeds becomes a necessity. The dried sandalwood seeds are mostly stored in cotton bags. The aim of the current study was to identify the change of germination rate with the storage period under the above mentioned storage method. For this purpose, seeds collected soon after falling to the ground were stored in cotton bags after preliminary cleaning. Then the seeds were germinated on weekly basis after a pre-treatment with 0.05% gibberelic acid (GA3). Water was used instead of GA3 for the control experiment. As the storage time increased it was observed that the number of seeds germinated decreased. The maximum germination percentage of >80% was observed when the storage period was 3 weeks. Germination of 50% was achieved at the 7th week of storage and the germination rate was zero percent after 28 weeks of storage under the GA3 treatment. The control experiment indicated comparatively a lower germination rate than the treatment with the GA3.

The present study was conducted to identify the changes in nutrient contents in teak seedlings with the application of different types of nutrients along with compost. Compost was applied as compost alone, compost with calcium (Dolomite), with phosphorus (Triple Supper Phosphate, i.e, TSP) and with both calcium and phosphorus (Dolomite and TSP). In order to identify the nutrient changes; nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium concentrations in leaves of teak seedlings under different treatments were analysed before and after 3 months of compost application. According to the results, nitrogen content in leaves of all treatments after 3 months of application were lower than that in leaves before the application of compost. The differences in phosphorus and potassium concentrations in leaves were the highest when compost was applied with TSP. The highest magnesium concentration was also observed under compost treatment with TSP. Among all the treatments, higher calcium differences were observed when compost was applied with both TSP and Dolomite, compost with Dolomite and compost with TSP respectively. The above observations showed that the application of different types of compost affect the nutrient contents of teak plants in different manner. However, application of compost with TSP showed the highest amounts of both potassium and magnesium amounts and a higher calcium amounts in plants.