Osmoconditioning of seeds in relation to growth and fruit yield of aubergine, pepper, cucumber and melon in unheated greenhouse cultivation

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Abstract

Seeds of aubergine, pepper, cucumber and melon were osmotically conditioned in mannitol solutions and dried back to their original weight prior to sowing. Seedling emergence and initial growth, yield, fruit quality (grade) and mean fruit weight were recorded throughout the cultivation. Osmoconditioning promoted early emergence of the seedlings in all cases and, with the exception of cucumber cultivar ‘Sandra’, encouraged more rapid growth of the plant for at least 1 month after emergence. There was no effect of treatment on the total yield of any crop, and where differences in early yield occurred these were generally not statistically significant. There was no significant difference in fruit quality (grade) or size between treatments except for melons, where fruits from osmoconditioned seed were smaller than the controls. It is concluded that the application of osmoconditioning of seeds to commercial production is limited to its effects on germination and early growth alone.

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    Citation Excerpt :

    In osmo-priming, osmotic solutions are used to reduce the impact of reactive oxygen species by limiting oxidative damages (Paparella et al., 2015; Taylor et al., 1998). Priming has several advantages especially under stress conditions (Knypl and Khan, 1980; Passam et al., 1989; Pill, 1991; Wiebe and Muhyaddin, 1987). For storage purposes, primed seeds undergo a subsequent dehydration process to reduce the moisture content rapidly back to the original content (Rajjou et al., 2012).

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Present address: Plant Propagation Station, 2 Antheon Str., 151 23, Maroussi, Athens, Greece.

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