Germinação de sementes de pimentão em condições de estresse salino

Abstract

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the most consumed vegetables in Brazil. Its development and productivity results, among other factors, from the good establishment of the plants in the field. This factor is directly associated with the germination of its seeds, which are dorectly impacted by the water quality used for its irrigation. The objective of this research was to evaluate three pepper cultivars submitted to different levels of saline stress in the germination phase. The experiment was carried out in the Seed Laboratory of the Universidade Federal do Ceará, being conducted in a completely randomized design, in a 3 x 5 factorial scheme with four replicates of 50 seeds. The first factor was constituted by three cultivars of pepper: All Big (C1), Casca dura Ikeda (C2) and Amarelo SF134 (C3) and the second by five salinity levels using Sodium Chloride (NaCl): T1= 0; T2= 3; T3= 6; T4=9 and T5= 12 dS m-1. In total there were condcted 60 experimental plots. The following characteristics were evaluated: germination, germination firts count, germination speed index, germination mean time, seedling length, dry mass of the root (MSR) and dry mass of the shoot (MSPA). ImageJ software was also used for the computerized analysis of seedlings images, which provided length values and qualitative data of the seedlings. The cultivar Amarelo SF134 presented better response in all the characteristics even with the increase of NaCl levels. The cultivars Casca dura Ikeda and All Big showed good performance up to the level 6,0 dS m-1.