ISHS Acta Horticulturae 574: VII International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture
DEPENDENCY OF LINGONBERRY SEED GERMINATING ABILITY ON SEED AGE AND STORAGE METHOD |
| Author: | T. Paal |
| Keywords: | cowberry, seedlings, Trichoderma viride, Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
| Abstract:
For the experiment, lingonberry variety ‘Erntesegen’ was used. The experiment included four variants: (1) fresh berries were stratified at 3 ºC for 5 months; (2) fresh berries were stored at a temperature of 18–20 ºC until sowing; (3) seeds were kept at a temperature of 18–20 ºC for one year and stratified for 4 months at a temperature of 3 ºC before sowing; (4) as in variant 3, but seeds were stored for 2 years before stratifying. For all variants, seeds were sown at the beginning of February in an unfertilised oligotrophic peat substrate (pH 4.0) in 6 replicates, each including 25 seeds. Three replicates of each variant were treated with Trichoderma viride strain (Mode A), and three replicates were left in a natural state (Mode B). Germination rate was registered on every 5th day. Germination of seeds began 17 days after sowing in variant 1. In the other three variants, seed germination began a week later, on the 21st day. Germination rate during the first weeks was slowest in variant 4. The best germination rate – 73.2% (Mode A) and 72.0% (Mode B) – was observed in seeds of the 1st variant of the experiment. Seeds of the 4th variant germinated very slowly and their germination rate was the lowest, 17.2% (Mode A) and 13.2% (Mode B). Stratification seems to raise their germination ability to about 25%. Two years old stratified seeds without the Tricoderma treatment had the same germination rate as fresh seeds without stratification but with Trichoderma in the substrate. Stratification enhances the germination rate of two-year-old seeds of lingonberry. Lingonberry seeds lose their germination ability rather quickly. Statistical analysis of data by means of Generalised Linear Model procedure confirmed the significant difference between experimental variants (p = 0.001), while the differences between modus appeared to be statistically unreliable (p = 0.90). | |
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