Germinative potential of encrusted seed of tropical forage species

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Brazil is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of seeds of forage species, thus the adoption of new technologies for expansion and maintenance of this market is of great importance. The aim of this work was to evaluate encrustation effect on germination potential in seeds of Brachiaria sp. species. The experiment was carried out in Biofabrica laboratory from June to August 2014, in Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Vitória da Conquista-BA. The experimental design was completely randomized, in a factorial scheme 6x2, with two treatments (with and without coating) and four replications. For germination quality of seeds were evaluated germination and vigor (emergence, emergence speed index, total length of seedling, shoot and root). The encrustation affected positively the germination of seeds in all species tested and encrustation did not affect the total length, shoot and root of the seedlings. Coating after chemical scarification is an alternative to improve germination of the seeds of tropical forage species.