Germination studies on passionfruit cultivars with different pre-sowing seed treatments

There has been conflicting reports on the viability of passionfruit seeds for optimum germination.
In this study, seeds of yellow passionfruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Degener.) stored for four years and one-week-old seeds of purple type (Passiflora edulis Sims.) were used to evaluate the influence of different pre-sowing treatments on the germination and survival percentage of seedlings.
The pre-germination treatments included soaking for one hour in GA₃ 100 ppm, thiourea 100 ppm, apical tip clipping+GA₃ 100 ppm, apical tip clipping+thiourea 100 ppm and control (distilled water). There were no significant differences between the two cultivars in terms of germination.
Use of growth regulators increased the germination percentage and reduced the mean germination time in both types.
The highest germination (90.0%) and survival percentage (89.58%) were recorded by clipping of apical tip and soaking in GA₃ at 100 ppm in purple type.
The plant height and internode length were evaluated.
The greatest survival percentage (62.41%) was recorded from purple type while yellow passionfruit recorded 57.26% studied after three months of germination suggesting that seeds may be equally viable with long period of storage as it is with freshly extracted ones.

XXIX International Horticultural Congress on Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods and Landscapes (IHC2014): International Symposium on Tropical Fruits

P. Alila

GA₃, thiourea, apical clipping, purple passionfruit, yellow passionfruit

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1178.7