Effects of combined pretreatments on germination and emergence of wild Eremurus spectabilis M.Bieb. seeds

Abstract

Eremurus spectabilis is a perennial herbaceous species that grows in the wild. Commonly consumed as a vegetable, it is also classified among medicinal plants and popular ornamental geophytes. Germination is not achieved under normal conditions because of seed dormancy. In this study, various combined treatments were experimented with to improve the germination and emergence performance of E. spectabilis seeds. The seeds were immersed in solutions of potassium nitrate (KNO3: 5 mM for 24 and 48 hours), calcium chloride (CaCl2: 5 mM for 24 and 48 hours) and subjected to tip cutting. Pre-treated seeds were then subjected to moist-cold stratification periods treatments for different durations (30, 50, 80 and 100 days). In the 5 mM KNO3 treatments, 48-hour KNO3 and 100 days of stratification treatments had better germination (11.1%) and emergence values (9.7%). In the 5 mM CaCl2 treatments, 24-hour CaCl2 yielded better germination (10.2%) and emergence (8.4%) values. Seed tip-cutting treatments were the most successful among all the treatments for the germination and emergence parameters.