Employing variations in seed moisture content and ambient temperature, this research aimed to study the performance of yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg.) seeds during storage. To do so, the seeds, once extracted from the fruits, were subjected to a turbulent water flow followed by hand rubbing on a wire mesh screen during washing under tap water, in order to remove the mucilage. After elimination of the water from the seed surface through shade drying, a treatment was obtained which consisted of seeds with 26% moisture content. The remaining seeds were submited to oven drying to obtain the other treatments (20, 14, 10 and 8% H2O). The seeds, packaged in polyethylene bags, were stored in a controlled temperature environment at 10 and 20ºC; at the beginning and after 35, 70, 105, 140, 175, 210, 245, 280 and 315 days of storage, seeds were evaluated in relation to quality. The preservation of the seeds, considering the storage intervals, is favored by the combination of 10% moisture content with 20ºC temperature. On the other hand, the physiological performance showed some random variations with time of storage, suggesting dormancy effects. However, the observed recurrency and ramdomness of this effect, without evident ambient interferences, are not supported by the phenomenology attributed to dormancy by the specialized literature; thus, the subject requires further specific investigations.
latency; vigor; quality evaluation; drying
