Efecto del IHPLUS®BF en la germinación de semillas de Leucaena leucocephala (Lam) de Witt cv. Cunningham

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of inoculation with the biofertilizer IHPLUS®BF on seed germination of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam) de Witt cv. Cunningham. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at the Pastures and Forages Research Station Indio Hatuey, located in the Perico municipality, Matanzas province, Cuba. To study the germination response of seeds of L. leucocephala cv. Cunningham, an experiment was carried out with a completely randomized design with a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement. The treatments were formed by the combination of two factors: a) imbibition time and b) dilutions of IHPLUS®BF. Three different times (8, 10 and 28 h) were combined with four dilutions (2,5; 5; 10; 15 mL L-1), and a control: seeds with thermal scarification treatment (water at 80 ºC for two minutes). Results: Germination kinetics maintained a similar performance in all treatments. The best response was obtained with the combination of the thermal scarification method, with 28 hours of imbibition at 10 days and 96 % germination. Germination potential, speed index, average germination time and time to reach maximum germination performed best when the bioproduct was used with doses of 2,5, 5, 10 and 15 %, imbibed for 28 hours. These doses did not show significant differences among themselves and had higher germination efficiency and a minimum of six days to reach maximum germination. Conclusions: The effectiveness of IHPLUS®BF during the germination process of L. leucocephala cv. Cunningham seeds was proven, being the best combination the use at 5 % for 28 hours with higher germination efficiency.

Keywords

• biofertilizer
• scarification
• inoculation