Abstract

Efficacy in yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims F. flavicarpa Deg) seedling production may be affected by irregular germination due, mainly, to a short period of seed dormancy, as well as to the use of the wrong substrate. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of three storage temperatures and three substrates during the initial development of yellow passion fruit seedling. The experiment was conducted in an agricultural greenhouse at Universidade Federal de Pelotas,RS. After the removal of the mucilage and drying, seeds were placed in Kraft paper packages and stored at 5 ºC, 10 ºC and room temperature (18 ± 0.6 ºC) for 15 days. Next, they were grown in Amafibra®coconut fiber, carbonized rice husk and S-10Beifort®. Seeds kept at 18 ºC showed shorter length of the longer root, with no difference from those stored at 5 ºC. There was no temperature effect on emergence, shoot length, number of leaves and dry weight biomass of shoot and roots. The highest germination percentage was found in the carbonized rice husk substrate; however, with the exception of the longer root length and the dry weight biomass of shoot and roots, the plant development was superior with the other substrates. Hence, the use of temperature of 10 ºC during storage, as well as coconut fiber and S-10 Beifort® as substrates are the better recommendation to improve the emergence and initial development of the yellow passion fruit.