Age, benefit and gibberellic acid affect the germination and production of piquin pepper plant

Abstract

To obtain pepper or wild pepper seeds, the way of collecting or producing, the extraction technique, the selection, the packing, the form and time of storage and the conditioning prior to sowing, affect the germination and viability of the seed and the production of seedlings. The above, added to the natural latency, represent an important obstacle for the domestication and commercial production of this species. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate germination and seedling production in relation to age, benefit and conditioning prior to sowing. Seeds of fresh red fruits of an ecotype of the region of Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico of 0, 2, 4 and 12 months of age after extraction were used. The benefit consisted of drying the seed with forced air up to 9% humidity, standardize by weight, pack in aluminized polyethylene bag and hermetically sealed and store at 15 °C. The conditioning was immersed with gibberellic acid at 5 000 mgL^-1 for 12 h before planting. Germination, hydration rate, tetrazolium staining and seedling production were evaluated. The results show that the newly harvested seeds do not germinate due to immaturity of the embryo; after two months of rest the seed germinates, the benefit maintains its viability for more than a year, conditioning with gibberellic acid prior to sowing, increases the percentage of germination and the production of seedlings.