Potencial fisiológico de sementes de alface submetidas a diferentes períodos de pré-embebição

Abstract

Seed pre-soaking is an agronomic practice used in certain species to promote faster and more uniform emergence. The aim of this work was to evaluate the vigor of lettuce cultivars in response to seed pre-soaking duration. The experimental design used was completely randomized with in a 3 × 3 factorial scheme, consisting of three genotypes (Americana Grandes Lagos–Feltrin, Mimosa Salad Bowl, and Americana Grandes Lagos–Isla) and three seed pre-soaking durations (0, 12, and 24 hours). When evaluating the effect of pre-soaking time on the first count variable, higher values were observed for the seeds were exposed to 12 h (50.68%) and 24 h (53.06%) of incubation. It was also observed that the genotype Americana Grandes Lagos–Feltrin stood out from the other genotypes, with approximately 86% of seedlings emerged by the third day after sowing. The interaction data between pre-soaking time and genotypes showed a statistically significant difference for the genotype Americana Grandes Lagos- Isla across different pre-soaking periods, with the highest mean percentages of emerged seedlings, 87.24% and 85.20%, observed at 12 h and 24 h, respectively. When analyzing the influence of each pre-soaking time in relation to the genotypes, it was observed that the genotype Americana Grandes Lagos – Feltrin showed seedling emergence above 95%. Regarding the Emergence Speed Index (ESI), it was found that the effect of this interaction was similar to that observed for the emergence variable. The genotype Americana Grandes Lagos- Feltrin stood out from the others for all analyzed variables.