Período de estratificação e desenvolvimento inicial de Seedlings de pessegueiro em função do número de sementes por endocarpo

Abstract

The peach fruit can have into the endocarp one or two seeds. However, it is unknown if the number of seeds per endocarp can have different behavior during its stratification and subsequent plant growing for using as rootstocks. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of seed number per endocarp on the peach seedling stratification and initial growing of variety Campinas-1 and progeny 290. The work was carried out at the Department of Plant Science, of the Federal University of Viçosa (MG), Brazil, from February to August, 2005. It was performed two experiments, being the first one based on germination of seed and the second one based on initial growing. In the first experiment, the seeds were stratified in cold chamber (5°C), where the percentage of germination was evaluated, estimating the date corresponding to 80% of germination. After the germination, at greenhouse, the second experiment was initiated, in which the sowing of the seeds occurred in plastics recipients (32 cm x 16 cm), containing Red Latosoil + Plantmax® mixture (3:1 v/v, enriched with P2O5 - 3,0 kg m-3). It was concluded that the number of seeds per endocarp had relationship to the stratification period, being the shortest period to obtain 80% of germination observed in seeds from endocarp that possessed just one seed. The peach seedling initial development was not influenced by the seed number per endocarp.