IN VITRO SEED GERMINATION OF MANDACARU (Cereus jamacaru DC.)

Mandacaru (Cereus jamacaru DC.) is a native cactus of Caatinga with a big importance for development sustainable and biodiversity conservation of this biome. The goal of this work was to disinfest and promoter seed germination of this specie in vitro. For this different concentration of the sodium hypochlorite solution and sucrose were evaluated. The experimental design was completely randomized in factorial 5 x 5, with five replicates by treatments. Treatments consisted in five sodium hypochlorite concentration (0.0; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5 and 2.0%) and five sucrose concentration (0.0; 2.5; 5.0; 7.5 and 10.0 g. L-1). The following variables were analyzed: contamination; seed germination frequency and seedling growth. The analysis of variance shown that there was a significant interaction for seed germination at 5% of probability by F test. The 2.5% sucrose supplemented media was the most efficient treatment. On other hand, it was observed that the concentration of sodium hypochlorite soluction at 0.5% was effective in seed disinfestations. The best treatment was at 1.0% of hypochlorite. Regarding the seedling growth there was no significant differences among treatments.