Effect of temperature and pre-germination treatments on seed germination and seedling vigor of Jatropha curcas L

To date, there are no official methods used to test the seed germination of physic nut (Jatropha curcas) and there have only been a few attempts to optimize the germination of this species. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different temperatures and pre-germination treatments on the germination and seedling vigor of J. curcas. The treatments were arranged in a completely randomized factorial scheme with four temperatures (20, 25, 30 and 20-30°C) x two types of seeds (with and without the seed tegument) x six periods of water imbibition (0, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30h). The seeds were sown using a roller system with four replications of 50 seeds for each treatment. The germination percentage was higher for seeds stored at 25°C, when the seed tegument was maintained. When the time of water imbibition was increased, the germination percentage decreased, as well as the index of germination velocity and the percentage of germination of the first count. Imbibition for up to 12h led to an increase in hypocotyl growth. For this species, the maximum germination potential and highest vigor were obtained at 25°C, for seeds with teguments that were maintained and were not submitted to water imbibition