TEMPERATURE AND SUBSTRATE IN Citrullus SEEDS GERMINATION lanatus cv. Citroides
Termos para indexação: melancia forrageira, cucurbitácea, semiárido, qualidade fisiológica.
Forage Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus cv. Citroides) is a cucurbit, originated in Africa, introduced in the Northeast by slaves, which hybridized with other species of the same genus and has been widely used in the animal feeding, however, little is known about germination physiology of their seeds. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature and substrate on forage watermelon seed germination. We tested the effect of five temperatures (20, 25, 30, 35, 20-30 and 25-35 ° C) and four substrates (sand, vermiculite, paper and paper roll) on germination, germination speed index, length root, shoot and total seedlings and seedling dry weight. Therefore, we used four repetitions of 50 seeds for each treatment. The experimental design was completely randomized in a factorial 6 x 4 (temperature x substrate) and the results were submitted to variance analysis and, where necessary, Tukey test (5%) to compare the treatment means . There was effect of temperatures, the substrates and the interaction between the factors of the variables tested. The substrate which improved performance was the paper roll to 35 ° C