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Viability of the seed of senecio inaequidens D C buried in field environmental conditions


Abstract

In order to know the period of feasibility of the seneçon du cap seeds, exposed to environmental climatic conditions, the realization of this research was proposed, in which the effect of exposing the seeds to three different burial conditions (superficial, 2 and 10 cm.) having as a witness seeds that are kept at a constant temperature of 20°C., to know what happens with the seeds when they are exposed to climatic variations.

In the present work, it has been proposed to evaluate the feasibility of the seeds, for a period of three years, during which samples of the seeds that have been buried in the soil at the three depths mentioned above will be sampled, the samples will be taken from the following way: during the first year, samplings will be made every fifteen days, in the second year, the samplings will be monthly and in the third year, the samplings will be bimonthly.

The results of the first 17 samplings that have been made, where the first results can be observed, on the behaviour of the viability of the seeds of this plant, it has been observed that there are statistical differences between the different levels of burial of the seeds , being greater the viability of the seeds of the control treatment, followed by the seeds that are buried to 10 cm of depth, then those that are 2 cm deep and finally those that are exposed on the surface of the soil and all statistically different each.

Finally it is observed, until sampling number 16 (05/29/2001), that in a general way the seeds of the superficial treatment, have practically lost the viability from the sampling number six, since they present less than 10% of viability the seeds. On the contrary, the seeds of the burial treatments at 2 and 10 cm depth maintain a variable viability, which may be due to the variability of climatic conditions, however, much higher than those that are exposed on the surface. Also, it is observed that the seeds that are buried at 10cm, Retain greater viability than the seeds buried at 2cm depth.

As for the seeds that do not germinate during the period of permanence in the germination chamber, they were subjected to the tetrazolium test, observing that for any of the treatments (superficial, 2 and 10 cm) in which the seeds are exposed to the climatic conditions, less than 3% of said seeds remain dormant, the rest of the seeds are dead or damaged, while the seeds of the control treatment, the dormancy is higher than 15%, on average.

Keywords

Senecio inaequidens, buried seeds, dormancy, dispersion, behaviour of the seeds, anaerobiosis, germination, temperature conditions, germination chamber, dark conditions, tetrazolium solution, environmental conditions, viable seeds

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