Abstract

RAMIREZ, Maribel et al. Response to pregerminative treatments and morphological characterization of seedlings of Leucaena leucocephala, Pithecellobium dulce and Ziziphus mauritiana. Pastos y Forrajes [online]. 2012, vol.35, n.1, pp.29-42. ISSN 0864-0394.

The objective of this research was to study the effect of different pregerminative treatments on the Leucaena leucocephala, Pithecellobium dulce and Ziziphus mauritiana seeds, as well as the morphological characteristics of the emerged seedlings, by means of a randomized block design with four repetitions and with factorial arrangement in P. dulce and L. leucocephala. In P. dulce the factors studied were: the application of gibberellic acid (GA) (0 and 100 mg/L) and the soaking time (ST) (0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 96 h); while in Z. mauritiana and L. leucocephala the ST (0, 24, 48 and 96 h) in water was applied, in addition to a control. In the latter, the scarification with sandpaper (SS) was also analyzed, with application times of 0, 20 and 40 min. In each species, the following was evaluated: emergence percentage (EP), emergence rate (ER), seedling height, root length, number of leaves and nodes, as well as stem diameter. In L. leucocephala the interaction between ST and SS showed significant differences (P>0,05) in the EP; the seeds with SS for 20 min and with ST in water for 24 h showed EP of 86,67% after 14 days. In P. dulce the ST showed significant differences (P<0,05) in the EP and the times 48 and 96 h reduced the EP. In P. dulce and Z. mauritiana there was an EP of 91,3% (after 14 days) and 98,4% (after 21 days), and an ER of 4,61 and 8,93 days, respectively. It is concluded that only the L. leucocephala seeds needed pregerminative treatment and that the seedlings of the three species showed homogeneous and fast growth.

Keywords : Emergence; Leucaena leucocephala; Pithecellobium dulce; seedlings; seed treatmen; Ziziphus mauritiana.

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