The involvement of short-chain fatty acids in the control of thermodormancy and germination in Lactuca sativa L. cv. 'Grand Rapids'

Short-chain, fatty acids (chain length 6-9) were found to be inhibitory to lettuce seed germination. This inhibition was affected by the imbibition temperature in a particular manner. When the G50 dose of each short-chain fatty acid was calculated, the G50 dose being that dose which reduced germination to 50% of the corresponding control, and plotted against temperature they were found to be linearly relented. As the imbibition temperature increased, the dose required to reduce germination to 50% of the control was reduced, Nonanoic acid was the most effective in reducing lettuce seed germination of the fatty acids tested, while hexanoic acid was the least so. All four lines were found to extrapolate to zero dose around 36.