Abstract

SANABRIA¹, Damelys; SILVA-ACUNA, Ramón; OLIVEROS, Miguel  and  MANRIQUE, Ursulino. Germinación de semillas de las leguminosas arbustivas forrajeras Cratylia argentea y Cassia moschata sometidas a inmersión en ácido sulfúrico. Bioagro [online]. 2004, vol.16, n.3, pp.225-230. ISSN 1316-3361.

The forage leguminous, in a general way, represents a high protein value for the animal feeding under conditions of savannas; however, they have establishment limitations due to dormancy of the seeds. In that sense, the germination of Cratylia argentea and Cassia moschata was evaluated after receiving chemical scarification with concentrated sulfuric acid, by immersion for 4, 8, 16, and 32 min, and a control treatment (no immersion). The seeds were placed in germination chambers for eight days. A completely randomized experimental design was used, with three repetitions and 100 seeds by experimental unit. The quantified variables were: percentage of germination of hard and dead seeds and root length of young plants. The seeds of Cratylia argentea had low percentage of hardness (4 %), low viability (48 %) and the acid immersion did not help the germination in relation to the control, causing the death of high percentage of the seeds. For the seeds of Cassia moschata, the immersion during 16 min reduced the hardness in a 80 %, reaching 64 % of germination, 16 % of dead seeds and higher development of roots than the control. The variations of the immersion times and the differences between species explain the results

Keywords : Scarification; dormancy; cañafistola.