Evaluation of the effects of temperature and time of soaking in the speed of germination in Malagueta peppers

Abstract

Peppers are indispensable ingredients in the national cuisine, besides being consumed fresh, can be processed and used in several lines of products in the food industry. Pre-germination treatments of vegetable seeds reduce the time between sowing and emergence of seedlings and increase seed tolerance to adverse environmental conditions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different imbibition times, and different water temperatures, on the quality and speed of germination in chilli pepper seeds. The seeds were submitted to soaking in water previously heated at 30 °C, 60 °C and 90 °C for 15 seconds, 30 seconds and 60 seconds, and then placed in a gerbox with moist germ paper. The gerboxes were kept in greenhouse with luminosity and constant temperature of 23 °C. The design was completely randomized with 10 treatments (3 soaking times x 3 water temperatures + 1 control) and three replications. The seeds were evaluated daily after germination. The temperature of 90 ° C proved to be detrimental to the germination of the seeds, while the other temperatures showed no significant difference. It was concluded that the temperature of 90 ° C may have caused death of the embryo.