Seed dormancy-breaking of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate methods to breaking seed dormancy of Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu. An experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Seeds from Instituto Federal Goiano – Campus Rio Verde. A completely randomized design with eight treatments to breaking seed dormancy was used. The treatments were: 1) control; 2) immersion in gibberellic acid (100 mg L^-1) for 48 h; 3) immersion in gibberellic acid (200 mg L^-1) for 48 h; 4) immersion in concentrated sulphuric acid for 5 min; 5) immersion in concentrated sulphuric acid for 10 min; 6) immersion in hot water (100 ºC) for 1 min; 7) immersion in hot water (100 ºC) for 2 min and 8) immersion in hot water (100 ºC) for 3 min with four replicates. Daily, germination was evaluated to determine the germination speed index. After the complete germination (25 days), the seed germination percentage was quantified. Hot water treatments, independently of the seed immersion time, were the most effective to breaking the seed dormancy of B. brizantha cv. Marandu.