Effect of water pH of soaking and of cracking of the seeds of the yellow passion fruit in the germination and initial development

The passion fruit plant is among the main fruits cultivated in the country, being the sowing of seeds the predominant method in the production of seedlings. The aimed of this work was to evaluate the effect of the water pH of soaking and of the cracking of the seeds on the germination and initial development processes of the yellow passion fruit, cv. IAC 277. The work was carried out at the Department of Plant Science, of the Federal University of Vicosa (MG), Brazil. The treatments were constituted of cracking and no cracking seeds soaked for 24 hours into solution of distilled water at pHs 3.0; 4.0; 5.0; 6.0 and 7.0. After, at the greenhouse, the seeds were sowed in plastic boxes being used as fine substrate washed sand. The experiment was designed in a completely randomized blocks, in a factorial 5 x 2 (pH of the solution x cracking of the seed), with four replications, where each plot constituted of 50 seeds. After 28 days of sowing, the following characteristics were evaluated: germination and survival percentages; emergence speed; total plantlet length; plantlet height; first root length and plantlet mass total drought. It was concluded that, pH values of the soaking solutions were favorable at the pHs of 3.81 and 6.14, for no cracking and cracking seeds, respectively. The pH values of the soaking solutions did not influence on the initial development of the yellow passion fruit. The no cracking seeds presented the best results, not being recommended the cracking of the seeds for the germination and initial development processes of the yellow passion fruit.