Dormancy-Breaking Requirements and Germination for Seeds of <i> Ostrya carpinifolia</i> Scop.

• Main Authors: Elias PIPINIS, Elias MILIOS, Olga MAVROKORDOPOULOU, Panagiotis LOZOS, Pavlos SMIRIS
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AcademicPres 2014-06-01
• Series: Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca
• Online Access: http://www.notulaebotanicae.ro/index.php/nbha/article/view/9292
• ISSN: 0255-965X; 1842-4309

The present research aims at investigating the combined effects of warm stratification (WS)+cold stratification (CS), and gibberellic acid (GA₃)+cold stratification (CS) on breaking dormancy and germination in seeds of <i>Ostrya carpinifolia</i>. The seeds were subjected to WS (20-25 ºC) for 0, 1 and 2 months and were subsequently cold stratified at 3-5 ºC for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 months (1st experiment). A further amount of seeds was treated with 500, 1000 or 2000 ppm GA₃ for 30 hours and then cold stratified at 3-5 ºC for 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 months (2nd experiment). No germination was observed in the seeds subjected to only WS (1 and 2 months) or CS for 1 month indicating that the seeds of <i>O. carpinifolia</i> are dormant . A 4-month stratification (1 month WS+3 month CS or 4 month CS) fully released dormancy and led to a high germination percentage (94.17 and 98.34% respectively) in a short time (7.12 and 7.00 days respectively). Warm stratification treatment prior to CS, was not required in order to break the seed dormancy of <i>O. carpinifolia</i> and also did not reduce the length of the (total) stratification period required for breaking seed dormancy. Gibberellic acid (GA₃) application entirely replaced the CS period required for breaking seed dormancy. The germination of the seeds treated only with 2000 ppm GA₃ (0 months of CS) was (94.17%) as high as the germination of the seeds subjected to 4 months of CS (98.34%). It is obvious that the seedcoat of <i>O. carpinifolia</i> seeds was permeable to GA₃ and did not mechanically restrict embryo growth, thus, the seeds did not exhibit physical dormancy. Based on dormancy breaking requirements, the <i>O. carpinifolia</i> seeds displayed intermediate physiological dormancy.