DORMANCY OVERCOME IN BLACK PEPPER (Piper nigrum) SEEDS

Abstract

The black pepper fruits are largely used in culinary for its aroma but also useful for cosmetics, insect control and for its medicinal properties. Grafting has been used for propagation due to the period (six months) and irregular seed germination. To overcome the dormancy and reduce time for seedling production na experiment was carried out with seeds collected at the Alternative Medical Hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, at October 2000 and subject to the following treatments: a) peeled seeds, b) peelled seeds washed in running water for five minutes, c) peelled seeds washed in running water for five minutes and soaked in a 50% detergent solution and then washed in running water for two minutes, d) peelled seeds washed in running water for five minutes, then soaked in hypochloeite solution then washed for two minutes, e) control. Four replications were used in a completely randomized design. After 21 days it was observed no germination in the control treatment. Pelling increased germination to 56%. The peeled and water washed seed treatments, and those with washed and then hypochlorite soaked seeds caused germination rate increase, but did not differ significantly from those which just the seed peel was removed (58 and 56% germination rate, respectively). The higher germination rate (73%) was observed with peeled and washed seeds that were soaked in detergent solution, however no significant differences were found as compared to the water washed and hypochlorite soaked seed treatments.

KEY-WORDS: Seeds; dormancy; black pepper.