Physiological conditioning of peach palm seeds (Bactris gasipaes Kunth)

Abstract

Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) is a palm tree with seeds of slow and uneven germination. One of the most used processes for uniformization of the germination period of the seeds is the physiological conditioning or priming. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of priming on the physiological performance of peach palm seeds. The experiment was conducted at the State University of Southwest of Bahia, at the Laboratory of Technology and Seed Production, Campus of Vitória da Conquista-BA. The experimental design was completely randomized, in a factorial scheme 6 x 3 + 1, which consisted of six potentials (0, -0.6, -0.8, -1.0, -1.2 and -1.4 MPa) and three priming periods (24, 48, and 72 hours), plus absolute control, with four replicates of 25 seeds. Differences on Germination, mean germination speed, mean germination time, and synchronization index were observed between the treatments and the control by the Dunnet test (p <0.05). Positive effect of the treatments on the speed and uniformity of germination were also observed. By the study of the relative frequency distribution, it was possible to verify greater synchronization of the conditioned seeds, when compared to those that did not receive the treatments, attesting the effectiveness of priming in the peach palm seeds.