Priming on onion seeds and effects of drying and storage.

Author(s)

Roseli Fátima Caseiro

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2004-02-13

Examining board members

Julio Marcos Filho; Silvio Moure Cicero; Priscila Fratin Medina; Paulo Cesar Tavares de Melo; João Nakagawa

• Advisor: Julio Marcos Filho

Abstract

This work was carried out at the seed analysis laboratories of the Department of Crop Science, Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz" (USP/ESALQ) and of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science of the Ohio State University. The objectives were to study different methods of priming for onion seeds and also to verify the influence of drying and storage on the physiological potential of primed seeds. The research was conducted in three phases. First, using six lots of onion seeds (cultivar Granex 33), the effects of three priming techniques were compared: a) hydropriming, through seed imbibition between layers of paper towel, for 48 or 96 h, at 15ºC; b) osmopriming, using PEG 8000 solution with osmotic potentials of - 0.5 MPa and -1.0 MPa, for 24 and 48 h, at 15ºC) and c) seed hydration by the drum priming technique, at 15ºC and 25ºC, which the optimal amount of water added and imbibition periods were variable among seed lots. At the second phase, drying procedures after priming were tested. For that, after hydropriming (between layers of paper towel, for 48h), six lots of "Petroline", were submitted to fast drying (in an oven with air circulation) and to slow drying (in a chamber at 20ºC and 50%-60% relative humidity, for 72h). The influence of pre-drying incubation was also evaluated by using: a) PEG 8000 solution, at 8ºC, for 24, 72 and 120h; b) waterbath at 40ºC, for 1, 3 and 5h; and c) incubation in an oven, at 35ºC, for 24 and 48h. In the third phase, the storability of four seed lots each of three cultivars (Petroline, Primavera and Crioula Mercosul), hydroprimed and fast dried, was evaluated; samples of those lots were stored in a dry chamber (relative humidity around 50%, at 20ºC) and in the laboratory environment, during 9 months. The results showed that: a) the hydropriming, between layers of paper towel, is an adequate procedure for priming onion seeds, with beneficial effects mainly on speed of germination; b) for choosing the physiological conditioning procedure, the seed moisture content should be considered after hydration, it’s not being recommended the imbibition during pre-determined period; the onion seeds should reach moisture content of 44% to 49% after the hydration; c) the process of fast drying, in oven with air circulation, at 35ºC-40ºC, is convenient for the drying of primed onion seeds, inducing desiccation tolerance and d) the primed seed performance during storage is dependent on genotypes. (AU)