Ecophysiology of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) seed germination in a tropical environment

• Grant number: 23/11232-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2023
• End date: October 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Edvaldo Aparecido Amaral da Silva
• Grantee: Guilherme Henrique Crespi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Dormancy can be characterized as an attribute that contributes to maintaining species survival after dispersal. However, from an agricultural point of view, it prevents rapid and uniform germination and causes delays during seed quality assessment. Peanut seeds experience dormancy soon after harvesting, which prevents rapid and uniform germination. Thus, the study of peanut seed germination dynamics under environmental conditions is an important technological step to develop new methods to evaluate seed quality. The aim of this study is to characterize the ecophysiology of peanut seed germination in a tropical environment. For this, a field experiment will be conducted in the 2023/24 season with the IAC 505 cultivar. The harvested seeds will be artificially dried in the husk to 8% moisture content. A part of the dry fruits will be threshed manually to evaluate the water content and initial germination. The other part will be used for the installation of two experiments. In experiment I, 6 subsamples of 100 fruits packed in phyllo bags will be used. The fruits will be buried (30 cm) in the same soil in which they were generated. Monthly, a subsample will be dug up and the fruits will be threshed. The water content and seed germination will be evaluated. In experiment II, another 6 subsamples of the same number of seeds described above will be buried in a sand substrate contained in trays under local environmental conditions. Water content and germination will be evaluated monthly. Climatic data will be collected throughout the experiments and correlated with the physical and physiological attributes of the seeds. It is expected to gather fundamental knowledge to understand the ecophysiology of peanut seed germination and related environmental factors.