Evaluation of Harvesting and Seed Dormancy Overcoming Techniques in Hymenaea courbaril Germination

Abstract

Hymenaea courbaril is an endangered Brazilian native species. Recently, this species has been used on reforestation programs. So, production techniques that propitiate faster germination are very important. Although, seed dormancy, which could hamper the seedling production process, is not extensively recognized. Thus, this study focused on evaluating the influence of early harvest technique, scarification and pre-imbibition techniques to overcome H. courbaril seed dormancy in two steps. First, evaluating green fruits harvest could influence the germination process, 137 visually healthy seeds from green fruits and 400 seeds from mature fruits were selected. Seeds from green fruits presented similar results to seeds from mature fruits. Probably due to the natural seed tegument rupture. After, the influence of mechanical scarification, pre-imbibition and the combination of both methods were measured. All studied processing methods did not affect significantly any of the germination measurement parameters. Mechanical scarification exhibits similar responses as previous studies showed when using acid scarification. The technique of harvesting green fruits from the treetop seems to be applicable to commercial seedling production. While none of the studied treatments promoted significantly benefits to germination at any of the indexes.