Seed Treatment Techniques to Improve Germination of Wild Asparagus (Asparagus acutifolius L.), a Potential New Crop

Nikolaos Katsenios,Dimitrios Bilalis,Ioannis E Roussis,Aspasia Efthimiadou,Ioanna Kakabouki

doi:10.15835/nbha47311554

Nikolaos Katsenios, Dimitrios Bilalis + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha47311554

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Abstract

Pre-sowing seed treatment techniques of stratification and scarification were used in order to find the most appropriate method to overcome dormancy of wild asparagus (Asparagus acutifolius L.) seeds. An indoor and an outdoor experiment were carried out at the Agricultural University of Athens. For the indoor experiment, the pre-sowing treatments of stratification (fresh and stratified seeds) and scarification (non-scarified, mechanical scarification and chemical scarification with sulfuric acid) were used as the main treatments, and three different temperatures (15, 20 and 25 °C) as sub-treatments. For the outdoor experiment, there were only the treatments of stratification and scarification. The stratification of asparagus seeds was found to have a positive effect on germination and vigor indices compared to non-stratified (fresh) seeds. The highest germination percentage, vigor index I and II were recorded with the stratified seeds that had been mechanically scarified in both indoor and outdoor conditions. The results indicate that just the scarification cannot improve germination of fresh collected seeds of wild asparagus. Stratification increased the germination percentage from 2.7-6.6% to 45.1-75.3%. The mechanical and the chemical scarification had a positive effect on the root length compared to the non-scarified seeds that have been stratified. These pre-sowing treatments can increase the germination percentage and produce vigorous seedlings that can be used to establish plantations of this potential new crop.

Highlights

Asparagus acutifolius is an evergreen perennial species that is widely distributed in Mediterranean countries of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia
The stratification of asparagus seeds was found to have a positive effect on germination and vigor indices compared to non-stratified seeds
The storage of wild asparagus seeds for a one-year period has been found to increase the sensitivity of pre-germination treatments in a similar research study (Conversa and Elia, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

Asparagus acutifolius is an evergreen perennial species that is widely distributed in Mediterranean countries of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. Its edible spears are mainly gathered from wild plants since ancient times. It is probably the species of asparagus that Theophrastus mentioned in his book “Historia Plantarum” as well as Dioscorides reported in his book “De Materia Medica”. It has been part of the Mediterranean diet for many years. The collection of the spears from wild plants is a time-consuming process, and for this reason, consumers increase the demand in local markets. In Mediterranean countries, wild asparagus edible shoots are already harvested and marketed (Molina et al, 2012). There is an increasing interest for the peroxidases that the seeds of wild asparagus contain. Guida et al (2014) found four novel basic peroxidases from Asparagus acutifolius and demonstrated that these enzymes are able to remove phenolic compounds from olive oil mill wastewaters with high efficiency

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