Dormancy breaking methods improve germination and seedling development in sour yellow passion fruit BRS Sol do Cerrado cv. BRS SC1

Abstract Seed dormancy occurs as a mechanism of adaptation to the environment. Dormancy can be exogenous and/or endogenous, making it difficult to obtain high-quality seedlings, as occurs in the Passiflora genus. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate methods for overcoming dormancy in sour yellow passion fruit seeds of BRS Sol do cerrado cv. BRS SC1. The hybrid seeds were subjected to the following treatments: (1) control; (2) immersion in distilled water at 5 °C for 10 min; (3) immersion in distilled water at 80 °C for 10 min; (4) immersion in Stimulate ® at 40 mg L −1 gibberellic acid for 2 h; and (5) immersion in Stimulate ® at 50 mg L −1 gibberellic acid for 2 h, with and without manual scarification, in a 2 × 5 fatorial arrangement with each treatment containing 3 replicates, consisting of thirty seeds each. The following variables were evaluated: germination percentage, time to 50% germination (T50), germination speed index (GSI), average shoot length, roots and index of developed seedlings. Manual scarification of sour yellow passion fruit seeds Sol do Cerrado cv. BRS SC1 results in dormancy breaking, with a relatively high germination percentage (64%), germination speed index (1.2) and seedling development, therefore, it is recommended for improving the performance of seeds from this cultivar, as it accelerates and standardizes germination.