© The Author(s) 2014 Published by Polish Botanical Society EFFECT OF CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS ON GERMINATION CAPACITY OF REED CANARY GRASS (Phalaris arundinacea L.) SEED DEPENDING ON STORAGE TIME

This paper presents the research results regarding the ef-fect of temperature (-15oC) and sulfuric and gibberellic acids on germination capacity of 1-, 2- and 4-year-old seed of reed ca-nary grass (P. arundinacea). According to the results obtained, the stimulatory and inhibitory effect of the above mentioned fac-tors depended on seed age and the time of seed exposure. A sig-nificant increase in germination capacity under the influence of low temperature (-15oC) was recorded only for 2- and 4-year-old seed after 6-hour exposure. However, one-year-old seed showed a significant decrease in germination capacity after 48 hours of freezing. The application of sulfuric acid significantly increased seed germination capacity only in the case of 4-year-old seed, re-gardless of the time of exposure, while a decrease in germination capacity, also not related to the time of sulfuric acid application, was observed in 1-year-old seed. A significant increase in germi-nation, resulting from seed treatment with gibberellic acid, was recorded for 4-year-old seed subjected to soaking for 12 h and for 2-year-old seed (soaking time 6 h) as well as for 1-year-old seed exposed to this factor for 1h. The inhibitory effect of gibberellic acid was observed in 1-year-old seed affected by this factor for 6h and 12 h as well as for hormone treatment of 2-year-old seed for 1 h and 12 h. Key words: Phalaris arundinacea, seed, germination capacity, temperature, gibberellic acid, sulfuric acid, storage tim