Abstract
The osmotic conditioning or priming is considered a promising technique to speed up germination and to improve seed performance. Four seed lots of asparagus, Mary Washington cultivar, were primed at 25°C for seven or 14 days using PEG 6000 at -1.0 or -1.2 MPa, or sea water at -3.3 MPa; or for three days in distilled water. The physiological quality of the seeds was evaluated by standard germination, first count germination, speed of seedling emergence, and germination percentage and seedling fresh and dry weights after controlled deterioration test. Primed seeds presented higher germination speed, independently of their initial physiological quality. Beneficial effects of priming on germination and vigour were more expressive in the seed lot of low physiological quality. Priming in PEG 6000 at -1.0 MPa for 14 days was the most beneficial treatment to improve asparagus seeds performance.
Highlights
Depending on temperature and soil water potential, it takes from four to six weeks sowing to seedling emergence of asparagus
Seeds of four distinct seed lots of ‘Mary Washington’ asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) with 7.5 to 8.0% moisture contents were spread on two sheets of paper towel (JProlab® - pH 6.5, density 68.4 g m-2, and resistance to rupture 2.67 kg cm-2) moistened with 20 mL of polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) solution at -1.0 (296 g L-1) or -1.2 MPa (326 g L-1) according to Villela et al (1991), or with natural sea water (-3.3 MPa osmotic potential), and kept in germination plastic boxes (11 × 11 × 4 cm) for either seven or 14 days
Priming increased total germination percentage (Table 1), especially for seed lot 1 (SL-1), in which germination increased from 40% to 61% with priming for 14 days in 1.2 MPa PEG
Summary
Depending on temperature and soil water potential, it takes from four to six weeks sowing to seedling emergence of asparagus. Techniques that speed up germination, such as seed priming, can enhance seed performance. This technique consists of seed imbibition in osmotic solutions with sufficient hydration to permit pregerminative metabolic events, but insufficient to allow radicle protrusion (Heydecker et al, 1975). Salt solutions of MgSO4, NaCl and KNO3, and others have been used to obtain a controlled hydration of seeds (Haigh & Barlow, 1987), and synthetic sea water (Frett et al, 1991) has been used for this purpose. Seed priming response depends on several factors such as osmotic potential, temperature and duration of the treatment
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