Evaluation of pregerminative treatments on seeds of Euterpe precatoria Mart. (Huasaí) in the city of Pucallpa-Peru

Abstract

In the research, pre-germination treatments applied to Euterpe precatoria Mart. seeds were evaluated, with the aim of observing their germination capacity, reducing the average germination time, making germination uniform and increasing the germination value. Eight pre-germination treatments are used: immersion in water at room temperature for 24, 72 and 120 hours; immersion in boiling water for 30, 60 and 90 seconds; scarification with sandpaper and scarification with sandpaper and immersion in water at room temperature for 24 hours at 20% of the cover, as well as one without any treatment. The experimental design was factorial, completely randomized, with four replicates per treatment and 25 seeds per replicate. Analysis of variance ANOVA with Duncan's test was applied to establish differences between treatments. The results showed significant differences (P-value <0.05) between the pre-germination treatments and the control, with the exception of immersion in water at room temperature for 24 hours. The treatments with the highest percentage of germination were with water at room temperature, where 88, 76, and 62 % germinated respectively, followed by the scarified ones with 44 and 35 %, and the control with 30 % and the treatments with boiling water did not generate any germination. The treatment at room temperature for 72 hours, was the one that showed the best values of average germination time, greater germination uniformity and higher germination value, so it is the best to be applied to improve the germination capacity of E. precatoria Mart seeds.