In the present investigation, seeds of Ricinus communis were subjected to various treatments to achieve early germination by breaking dormancy. At the end of 17th day, highest germination (82%) was achieved in the seeds subjected to mechanical injury followed by IAA treated seeds (79%). The germination percentage was 28, 48, 54, 23, 40, 17, 37, 4, 27, 38, 43, 27, 30 and 77 respectively in the seeds kept as control, pretreated with hot water, scarified, stratified, subjected to alternate high and low temperature, KNO3, thiourea, kinetin, GA3, H2SO4, presoaking treatment and those which were put in electric field and those which were subjected to coumarin and brassinolide. Thus, to achieve germination of R. communis seeds, the most suitable method is mechanical injury. IAA and brassinolide are also useful methods as they respectively resulted 79% and 77% germination in the present study (table 1).

Keywords: Ricinus communis, germination, dormancy, mechanical injury.