Morphological parameters of oil-pumpkin sprouts in different water-solution pH values

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This study aimed to determine the influence of a water‐solution pH value on the germination of Croatian Bankovci oil pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L. var. oleifera). The study was conducted under controlled conditions. The pumpkin seeds germinated at the different aqueous‐solution pH values (2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, 7.5, and 8.5, respectively). Subsequent to germination, a total germination was determined, and the morphological parameters of sprouts were measured: total length, hypocotyl length, and root length (cm). In this research, the average seed germination amounted to 92%. The pH value had a statistically significant influence (p≤0.05) on all morphological parameters. In this study, the average sprout length amounted to 7.6 cm. The smallest sprout thrived in a very acidic medium at a pH value of 3.5, whereby the average sprout length amounted to only 3.6 cm, whereas the largest sprouts thrived at a pH value of 7.5, whereby the sprout length averagely amounted to 8.4 cm. A sprout development response in the water solution media having the various pH values can be valuable for the examination of a possibility to grow this genotype in different soil types and for the calculation of a number of seeds for precise sowing.