Sweet Pepper Seed Germination and Seedling Growth After Treatment with Slug Mucus

Abstract

Abstract The development of new methods of crop production is the most promising field of research in agriculture. There are numerous chemical techniques of seed treatment before sowing; however, mollusc mucus has not been considered as a natural alternative of seed treatment yet. In this study, we treated sweet pepper seeds with Spanish slug mucus before sowing. Seed germination success, germination time, as well as the performance of seedling growth were compared between experimental and control groups. The main result showed that seeds treated with slug mucus required significantly fewer days to germinate than seeds without treatment. Although treated seeds exhibited faster germination, seedlings showed slower growth than in the control group. No significant difference of seed germination success between the control and experimental group was found.