TITLE:
Emergence of Conilon Coffee Seedlings Originating from Seeds Treated with a Sodium Hypochlorite Solution
AUTHORS:
Raquel Fialho Rubim, Henrique Duarte Vieira, Eduardo Fontes Araújo, Anna Christina Sanazário de Oliveira, Alexandre Pio Viana
KEYWORDS:
Coffea canephora, Soaking, Seeds, Parchment
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.13,
June
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: The coffee seeds are
problematic for the physiologycal quality, featuring low speed of seedling emergence.
In this sense, this work was developed with the objective of evaluating the
effect of sodium hypochlorite in the removal of the parchment and in the emergence
and seedlings development of conilon coffee in nursery conditions. Coffee seeds
of the variety Victoria were used, which were harvested in the cherry stage and
pulped by hand. Seeds were dried in an oven with forced ventilation until
reaching moisture contents of 35%, 30% and 25% wet basis. Then, the seeds with
parchment were soaked in a sodium hypochlorite solution with concentrations of
4%, 5%, 6% and 7% active chlorine for 3 and 6 hours. For each moisture content,
two additional treatments were added consisting of seeds with parchment and
seeds in which the structure was removed manually. The characteristics
evaluated were: emergence speed index, total emergence, dry mass of the shoots
and root system. Utilization of sodium hypochlorite promoted an acceleration in
seedling emergence speed similar to the method for manual removal of the
parchment when using concentrations of 4%, 5%, 6% and 7% for 3 hours, at all
moisture contents.