Abstract
Germination of woody ornamental seeds is frequently under the control of a dormancy mechanism which leads to problems in assessing seed quality, particularly germination capacity. The ability of a seed to reduce triphenyl tetrazolium salts to formazan may be used as a measure of potential for germination. Cold treatment (Rhus typhina), a cold treatment combined with ethephon treatment (Rhus typhina), gibberellic acid and cold treatment (Sambucus caerulea) or ethephon, gibberellic acid and cold treatment (Sambucus caerulea) are examples of dormancy alleviating treatments. Some seeds show differences in dormancy in relation to postharvest ageing. In Acer ginnala, one-month-old seed gave 44% germination, six-month-old seed 5% germination and nine-month-old seed 0% germination. Nine-month-old seed when treated with gibberellic acid, ethephon and cold gave 86% germination, which was superior to any treatment using fresh seed. Generalizations of treatments for woody ornamental seed germination are difficult to make. However, 100 mg 1-1 gibberellic acid and/or 100 mg 1-1 ethephon and 30 days at 4°C were optimal dormancy breaking treatments for several of the genera examined.
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