Germination and growth of ornamental pepper plants due to salinity

Abstract

Seeds need favorable environmental conditions to germinate but sometimes these conditions are not available. The goal of this work was to evaluate the influence of different concentrations of NaCl on in vitro germination and development of Capsicum annuum seedlings. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratório de Biotecnologia Vegetal at Centro de Ciências Agrárias (CCA) of Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), Areia, PB, Brazil. Ornamental pepper seeds (Capsicum annuum L.) were submitted to five concentrations of NaCl: 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM. The experimental design was completely randomized, with five treatments and seven replicates, each replicate consisted of one flask with one seed. After 14 days in vitro, the germinated seedlings were characterized for seedling height, hypocotyl width, cotyledon leaf length, cotyledon leaf width, leaf number, radicle length, fresh matter and germination. The data were submitted to analysis of variance by the F test (p≤0.05). When significant differences were detected, the data were submitted to regression analysis. Percentage of abnormal plantlets was also calculated and submitted to descriptive statistical analysis. The percentage of germination was not affected by the NaCl concentrations used in this work. However 75 e 100 mM salt concentrations influenced the cotyledonary leaf width, total fresh matter and percentage of abnormal seedlings.