EFFECT OF A VEGETABLE EXTRACT ON THE GERMINATION OF CHILEAN SEEDS (Capsicum annuum L.) UNDER SALT CONDITIONS

Chile pepper germination and seedling establishment is normally slow and irregular under salt stress conditions. The chile pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv. Sandia) salt tolerance during seed germination was evaluated in 60 plastic Petri dishes containing different solutions. The treatments included a control solution (reverse osmosis water, ROW), other with only vegetal liquid extract, another with a modified Hoagland solution, and six saline treatments for each solution (organic extract and Hoagland solution). The experiment was carried out in a growth chamber at 25 degrees C under a random completely experimental design. The results showed that the germination rate was higher in the treatments where the organic extract was applied to the saline treatments. However, there were no differences between treatments for both solutions averaging a germination of 93% versus 85% in the control. The same effect was observed in the radicle length. The length in seeds germinated with the organic extract averaged 6.2 cm versus 5,4 cm from those germinated with the Hoagland solution. The radicle length in the control averaged 4.4 cm. A contrary effect was observed in the hypocotyls length. Seeds germinated with the Hoagland solution had an average length of 5.4 cm versus 4.9 cm from those germinated with the organic extract solution. The control had a length of 3.6 cm. These results pointed out the chile pepper seed priming effect of the organic extract previous to the germination and radicle growth, and the effect of the nutrients contained in the Hoagland solution on the hypocotyls growth.