Technology for Adequate Handling of Albizia hassleri Seeds

Abstract

Albizia is an indigenous specie of estacional forest, with potential to ornamental , environmental and agroforestry systems uses. The trees of (Albizia hassleri (CHODAT) BURKAT) in adult stage can attain 35 meters of height and diameter of height of breast (DHB) of 80 centimeters. Another important characteristic of that specie is ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. This work was conduced at Embrapa Florestas, Colombo-PR, Brazil, to determine the protocols to break dormancy, substrata and temperature to germination test in laboratory, and storage conditions to conserve the seeds for 12 months. The experiment to break dormancy of seeds had sixteen treatments in complete randomized design and the experiment of substrata and temperature had twelve treatments in the same design. The experiment of seed storage had four treatment in factorial design, 3 X 2. The Tukey test was used to compare average of germinations of seeds among treatments. The number of seeds per kilogram was 36.600 (9.9% of moisture content). The best protocol to break dormancy of seeds was immersion in sulfuric acid for one to three minutes. The seed germination test in laboratory had the best combination with substrata towel paper with 30 oC of temperature. To conserve the seeds in storage for 12 months, the best conditions was cold chamber and polyethylene package.