Priming and physiological performance of rocket salad seeds

• Main Authors: Jarbas Alves, Rafael Marani Barbosa, Denis Santiago da Costa, Marco Eustáquio de Sá
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2012-03-01
• Series: Biotemas
• Subjects: Eruca sativa; Polyethylene glycol; Seedling vigor classification; Vigor
• Online Access: http://www.biotemas.ufsc.br/volumes/pdf/volume251/171a176.pdf

Rocket salad is a leafy vegetable that has become a popular food in various regions of Brazil. Its multiplication is only possible with seeds and, therefore, high quality propagation material is necessary for establishing a good crop. Studies show that seed conditioning promotes physiological improvements in the speed and uniformity of seedling establishment in the field. The present work was carried out in order to verify the effect of priming on the performance of rocket salad seeds. Five seed lots of rocket salad, cultivar Cultivada, were primed for 24 hours, using the potentials of 0.0, -0.1, -0.2, -0.3MPa, in a polyethylene glycol (Carbonax 6000) solution. A completely randomized design with 20 treatments (5 seed lots × 4 potentials) was used, with four replications. Means were compared by Tukey’s test and regression analyses were conducted for the osmotic potential. The data showed that priming improved germination and the percentage of strong plants in relation to vigor.