Temperature, giberelic acid and light action in fafia seeds germination – Pfaffia glomerata (Spreng.) Pedersen

Abstract

Pfaffia glomerata Spreng. Pedersen (fafia) is a vegetal specie with medical interest. A randomized experiment was used to study the effects of gibberelic acid, light/darkness and pre-freezing on the germination of fafia seeds (Pfaffia glomerata Spreng. Pedersen). The experiment had five replications of 40 seeds, with the following treatments: control, GA3 100 ppm, GA3 200 ppm, darkness and destilated water, GA3 100 and 200 ppm and 48 h pre-freezing and GA3 100 and 200 ppm and 7 days of pre-freezing. The fafia seeds were presoaked during 18 hours in GA3 and destilated water solutions, and thereafter placed in gerbox, using moistened filter paper. In the pre-freezing treatments the seeds were kept in a refrigerator for 48 hours and thereafter 7 days in 5° C ± 1. After this they were transfered to a cultive room with continuous white light and constant temperature of 22°C ± 2. Seed counting was performed each 3 days until 30 days. To evaluate the treatment effects, seeds were submitted to observations of percentage of germinated seeds, and the average period of germination, expressed in days. The GA3 treatments didn’t increase the germination and the pre-freezing treatment reduced significatively the germination percentage, and delayed this process.