Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXVII, Issue 1
Written by Valentina STOIAN, Diana RIȘCOU, Ștefania GÂDEA, Anamaria Vâtcă, Mădălina TRUȘCĂ, Sorin VÂTCĂ
The germination of exotic plants usually encounters difficulties. The research aim was to assess the effect of different seed priming methods on lemon germination. A number of 42 test tubes were filled with 11 cm of cotton wool and 1 cm of sterilized quartz sand. Each test tube contained one lemon seed. Three seed priming methods were tested respectively hardening with hot water, osmo-hardening with polyethylene glycol and hot water, hydro-priming, and a control treatment without priming methods. The assessments were made according to the BBCH scale of growth and development. The seeds from osmo-hardening treatments needed 42 days to reach stage 10 on BBCH scale, and the control needed two extra weeks. The hardening hot treatment and hydropriming seeds need 56 days to reach BBCH 09 secondary stage. A percent of 100% germination capacity was obtained to seeds from osmo-hardening, hydropriming and control treatments after 56 days. The most successful treatment in terms of secondary stages distribution was represented by the osmo-hardening, followed by hardening, then control, and the lowest result was in the hydro-priming treatment.
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