Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2017, 44(3):133-140 | DOI: 10.17221/22/2016-HORTSCI

Germination of red raspberry seeds as affected by origin and chemical scarificationOriginal Paper

Edward Żurawicz^*, Agnieszka Masny, Jolanta Kubik, Mariusz Lewandowski

Department of Horticultural Crop Breeding, Research Institute of Horticulture, Skierniewice, Poland

In 2014, this research was conducted at the Research Institute of Horticulture in Skierniewice, Poland. It was based on different red raspberry seed treatments with sulfuric acid during the scarification process. The seeds were obtained from crosses among ten parental forms, producing 55 hybrid families. During scarification, the seeds were subjected to concentrated sulfuric acid for 20, 30 and 40 minutes. Assessment of the germinated seeds, performed 2.5 months after the sowing, revealed different effects of the seed origin/pedigree and the applied scarification treatments. The best seed germination was recorded for the hybrid families where 'Radziejowa' (56.5% of germinated seeds), 'Laszka' (63.9%) and 'Sokolica' (73.5%) were the maternal forms, and the poorest one - where 'Polana' (6.2% of germinated seeds), 'Glen Ample' (32.5%) and 'Canby' (33.1%) were used as the maternal cultivars. The highest germination, on average for all the hybrid families, was obtained for seeds treated with H₂SO₄ for 30 min (45.3% of germinated seeds), and the lowest when the seeds were treated with H₂SO₄ for 40 min (35.6%).

Keywords: cultivars; seed scarification; mating design; cross-pollination; self-pollination

Published: September 30, 2017  Show citation