Germination of lettuce seeds submitted to osmotic priming during storage

Abstract

In some species the osmopriming technique allows rapid and uniform germination of seeds. This research studies the efficiency of osmopriming on the germination of lettuce seeds. Seeds of the cultivars Mesa 659, Nabuco RS and Verônica were osmoprimed with a mannitol solution (0.35 mol) for periods of 3, 4, 5, and 6 days, at the temperature of 20ºC and under daylight. After priming seeds were dried for 12 hours in an oven at 32ºC. Evaluation of osmopriiming efficiency was performed by the standard germination test 0, 10, 20, 30, 60 and 90 days after priming, in a complete randomized design with four replications, 50 seeds per replicate. Data were submitted to analysis of variance in a factorial arrangement 2 × 5 × 6 (2 levels of vigor; 5 periods of osmopriming and 6 periods of storage after drying). The effect of osmopriming on lettuce seeds varied depending on the cultivar and priming period.