In recent research, early stages of coffee seedling development were identified, after radicle protrusion, in which all the essential parts of the seedling can be assessed to demonstrate the potential of seed germination to generate normal plants. Thus, the objective of this research was to develop studies to reduce the time on the germination test. Ten seed lots of coffee were assessed through the germination test, every two days, from the tenth day of sowing, according to the morphological criteria of the seedlings. The data were compared to the standard germination test and analyzed by means of regression analysis and segmented nonlinear regression and planteau response model. It was concluded that the assessment of coffee seedlings at 16 days, in stage S1, provides the similar result of the pattern germination test, allowing a significant reduction of time in order to demonstrate the germination of the seed lots; the seedling assessment coffee in stage S2 does not have reduction of the time for assessing the coffee germination, in relation to the pattern.
Coffea arabica; germination test; segmented nonlinear regression; threshold; response plateau model