Morphophysiological dormancy and shortening the germination period of Viburnum dilatatum seeds

Abstract

Viburnum dilatatum seeds have morphophysiological dormancy, and need about 18 months to germinate. In this study, we investigated a method of breaking dormancy by warm stratification, for early sprouting after harvest. Embryo grow and root was emerged from seeds at alternating temperature of 25 ℃ for 16 hours / 15 ℃ for 8 hours (warm stratification) over 90 to 120 days. The generation of cotyledons was stimulated by subjecting the rooted seeds to cold stratification at 0 ℃ under constant temperature conditions for 60 to 90 days. From the above, we succeeded in shortening the number of days required to break dormancy to about 180 days and confirmed that V. dilatatum seeds has deep simple epicotyl dormancy.