Effects of different temperatures on the performance of seeds germination of Cecropia pachystachya Trec. (Cecropiaceae)Abstract
Seed germination of Cecropia pachystachya Trec. was investigated at 25, 30, and 35ºC using fluorescent day lights. Ten replicates each of 200 seeds were used in each thermal treatment. Germitest® paper, CEL-065®, and 11x11x5 cm Gerbox® were also used. The frequencies of radicle protrusions were counted at consecutive two hour intervals. The cumulative frequencies were combined with the distribution of Weibull using the following model: Y = M (1 - exp (-(t/b)c)). The best performance was achieved with the temperature of 30ºC ( M, 95.29%). Time to achieve 60.23% of seed germination (0.6321 x 95.29%) was 99.35 h with a spread of 7.19. All model/data set combinations had close to linear.
Cecropia pachystachya; seed germination; Weibull function
