METODOLOGIA DO TESTE DE GERMINAÇÃO EM SEMENTES DE ALGODÃO, COM LÍNTER E DESLINTADA

Abstract

The research was conducted in order to compare the methodology recommended on Seeds Analysis Rules, regarding substrate and temperature, for the germination test of linted and delinted cottonseeds. Seeds of the cultivar 7MH from the 98/99 season of Morada Nova-CE were divided into two samples. Two assays were done: inthe first, seeds were delinted with sulfuric acid (98%), for three minutes, being later washed in current water, while in the second, seeds were maintained with linter. Both samples were put to germinate on towel paper, cotton cloth and sand substrates, on fixed temperatures at 25ºC, 30ºC and alternated temperatures of 20-30ºC (20ºC/16h and 30ºC/8h). For each treatment, 400 seeds were used, being eight sub-samples of 50 seeds for paper and cloth substrates. The analysis were done in a seven days interval, being the first counting done at the fourth day and the final at the seventh day after the sowing. Two experiments were done to evaluate linted and delinted seeds, using the completely randomized design, with four replications, in a 3x3 factorial scheme. One concluded that for delinted seeds the germination test must be conducted on cloth cotton or paper towel substrate, atfixed temperature of 25ºC or 30ºC or alternated of 20-30ºC; for linted seeds, the best was cloth at alternated temperature of 20-30ºC.