Germinative response of Vismia baccifera to pregerminative treatment with ultrasound

Abstract

Currently, guiding studies on pregerminative treatments to accelerate the germination process of forest seeds is of great importance. The species Vismia baciifera is very important in reforestation programs, however, it has low germination capacity. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of pregerminative treatment with ultrasound on the germination of seeds of the species V. baccifera. A central composite design was carried out with the response surface methodology, using Design Expert version 12.0 software. 30 seeds with three replicates were used for the experimental condition, with the use of ultrasound with a frequency of 40 KHz. The variables considered were: ultrasonic bath time (1-10 min), water temperature in the bath (30-60 ºC) and germination percentage. The results demonstrated that the pregerminative treatment with ultrasound exerted a positive effect on the germination of V. baccifera seeds, with an increase in germination from 7.7% to 67.8% under the experimental conditions of 60 ºC and 5.9 min. This indicates the use of ultrasound as a pregerminative treatment to increase the germination of V. baccifera, which provides new incursion alternatives for forest species with low germination potential.