Post‐harvest age‐induced seed dormancy of Acer ginnala and its alleviation by growth regulator and low temperature treatments

Abstract

SUMMARYOne‐month‐old fruits of Acer ginnala with winged pericarp attached gave 44% germination and this was not increased by cold treatment at 4°C for 0, 10, 20, or 30 days, gibberellic acid treatment at 0, 1, 10, 100 or 1000 mg litre‐1, or ethephon treatment at 0, 2, 20, 200 or 2000 mg litre‐1.After 6 months of storage at 20–25 °C, germination of untreated fruits fell to 5% but could be restored to that of 1‐month‐old fruits by incubation at 4 °C for 30 days.After 9 months storage, no germination occurred in untreated fruits. Cold treatment (30 days at 4 °C partially restored germination (26%). Treatment with either gibberellic acid (1000 mg litre‐1) and 30 days at 4 °C (40%) or ethephon (100 mg litre‐] and 30 days at 4 °C improved germination (69%). The combination of all three treatments, i.e. 100 mg litre‐1 gibberellic acid, 100 mg litre‐1 ethephon and 30 days at 4 °C, optimised germination (86%).Thus, dormancy of A. ginnala developed during storage but could be reversed by a combination of treatment with low temperature and growth regulators. The highest germination (86%) was achieved after low temperature and growth regulator treatment of stored fruit.