Asian Journal of Plant and Soil Sciences

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of some physical (warm and cold stratification) and chemical treatments (scarification with sulphuric acid 98% at different durations) on the breaking of the double dormancy (endocarp inhibition and embryonic dormancy) affecting the seeds of oneseed hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna Jacq.) collected from shrubs grow spontaneously in the mount of Tessala (West-Algerian). The germination was tested in an oven at 20°C and 25°C. Compared to the seeds not treated with sulphuric acid, chemical scarification for 30 and 60 min by sulfuric acid combined with warm and cold stratification improves the germination capacity of seeds. Indeed, these pretreatments (stratification and scarification) have allowed to obtain maximum germination capacities 62 ± 5.38% at 25°C and 57 ± 1.65% at 20°C; while the weakest capacities are noted with seeds not treated with sulphuric acid and that are subjected only to cold stratification 24 ± 5.08% and 25 ± 0.86% respectively at 20°C and 25°C. Also the scarification works favorably by improving the velocity coefficient and shortening the time latency. The scarification entrains the deterioration of seeds when it exceeds 60 min.