Quality of Hancornia speciosa Gomes seeds in function of drying periods

Hancornia speciosa Gomes (Apocynaceae), a fruiting plant originated from Brazil, has fruits obtained mainly by extractivism and its main form of propagation is by seeds. The objective of this research work was to evaluate the effect of drying on emergency and initial growth of seedlings of H. speciosa. The work was developed in the Laboratory of Analyses of Seeds (CCA/UFPB), where the seeds were put to dry on towel paper in the laboratory environment conditions for the following periods: 0 (without drying), 24, 48, 72, 96, 120 and 144 hours. The evaluations were: water content, percentage of emergency, first count and index of emergency speed, as well as length and dry mass of seedlings. The experimental design was entirely randomized, with seven treatments and four replications of 25 seeds. The water content of seeds decreased of 56 to 12% after 144 hours of drying, the maximum emergence (73%) occurred after 33 hours of drying, in the first count the highest percentage of emergence (67%) were obtained after 16 hours of drying, the highest index of emergence speed (0.62) occurred after 21 hours of drying, the root length decreased linearly along the drying process, while there was greater shoot length (4.96 cm) when the seeds were dried for 57 hours. The drying of H. speciosa seeds is recommended for 48 hours.