Germinação de sementes de petúnia sp. (petunia x hybrida) sob diferentes faixas de temperaturas

Abstract

Petunia (Petunia x hybrida) is a Solanaceae plant that propagates by seed, which has a great ornamental interest, due to ease of cultivation and especially the beauty of its flowers, which display a variety of colors. However, few has been studied about this species in our conditions. The germination test, it's a way seed shape express their physiological quality, controlled by factors such as water, substrate and temperature, thus determining its value for sowing. The temperature is an important factor affecting the speed, uniformity and the percentage of germination process. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavior of petunia seed germination under different temperatures. This study was conducted in laboratory. Two varieties of petunia were used, the Petunia Multiflora Merlin Mix Pellet and Petunia Grandiflora F1 Falcon Mix Pellet, both produced and distributed by Sakata® company. The seeds were germinated in the BOD germination chamber. The treatments were temperatures of 20, 25, 30 and 35 ° C with a photoperiod of 12 hours. The evaluations were performed at ten days after germination, being evaluated the germination percentage parameter. It was observed that both varieties behaved similarly in different treatments. However, the 25 and 30 ° C temperatures provided better germination for petunia seeds, so that in the temperature of 25 ° C the percentage of germination was 88 and 90% for the variety 1 and 2, respectively . For the temperature of 30 ° C the percentage of germination was 88% for the variety 1 and 86% for the variety 2.