GERMINATION OF APPLE SEED FROM FRUIT REMOVED FROM COLD STORAGE

Apple seeds from ‘Gloster’ open pollinated harvested (date) and stored at 2°C were removed from fruits stored on April 9. The seeds were then either sown directly to a seedbed outdoors or planted in pots filled with sphagnum peat receiving mineral nutrition and either placed in a unheated greenhouse or an unheated plastic tunnel. The germination of seeds was judged on the emergence of the cotyledons above the ground. Germination was 78% the plastic tunnel, 70% in the field and 52% in the greenhouse. The higher germination in the field and unheated plastic tunnels suggest the effect of low temperatures after seed sowing and higher day–night temperature fluctuations.

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