Influence of Several Pre-sowing Treatments on Germination of Cyclamen Persicum

Several pre-germination treatments were given to Cyclamen persicum Mill. seed with the objective of improving germination percentage, speed, and uniformity. Soaking seed in water and in gibberellic acid improved germination speed, but the latter reduced survival. Etridiozole, benomyl, thiram, and sodium hypochlorite treatments did not reduce or delay germination as has been reported elsewhere, but gave no consistent advantage. INTRODUCTION Improvements in germination of C. persicum seed have been achieved through sodium and calcium hypochlorite surface disinfection treatments (1,8) but optimum germination has not been attained on a routine basis (12). C. persicum seeds show variability in uniformity, speed, and germination percentage, and are highly sensitive to environmental and pathogenic factors. In 1977, 1.13 to 2.75 cents (NZ) were paid per cyclamen seed. Low and irregular germination of this expensive seed contributes to already high production costs particularly with increasing use of the more highly priced Fl , hybrid seed. Germination of freshly harvested cyclamen seed tends to be slow and irregular (6,9), therefore, the following series of experiments used aged seeds. Heydeker (4) states that the ideal assessment of germination is taken when a viable, selfsupporting photosynthesising plant has been produced. To avoid discrepancies between results, seedlings must be grown 1 Present address: Brewster's Hire Plants, P.O. Box 11 068, Ellerslie, Auckland 5, New Zealand.