DRYING TOLERANCE AND LONGEVITY IN SILK FLOWER SEEDS (Calotropis procera)

Abstract

The research was conducted at the Universidade Federal do Piauí in Seed Analysis Laboratory in Teresina, between May 2018 and July 2019, in three trials in which it was evaluated Silk Flower seeds and tolerance to drying and longevity, in a randomized block design. The first evaluated the effect of washing the viability of freshly harvested seeds. In the second trial was tested for tolerance to drying and other fresh seeds originating from the same batch of fruit stored for 12 months at 5°C temperature. Treatments consisted of a factorial 2 x 6, resulting from the seed of nature factors (stored at low temperature or freshly cut) and drying time (0, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 hours), with the emergency parameters initial and final (6 and 12 days). Longevity, third test, treatments consisted of seed sampling obtained without washing, subjected to drying in the air, and maintained without packaging, analyzed every 30 days, on nine occasions, with certain initial emergency and end. In conclusion, the washing of the seeds improves emergency and stored at 5°C for twelve months, lose viability. More than 12 hours of drying reduces the moisture content of 50% in the fresh seeds, and stored in 94%. Drying for 60 hours reduces the overall emergency by 36%, affecting seed germination. It is estimated longevity in 180 days.