Selected and scarified seeds of Pterogyne nitens were osmoconditioned in PEG + KNO3 (-1,0MPa) solutions at constant temperatures: 10 or 27ºC for 0 (control), 6, 12, 24 h. Afterwards, the seeds were dried at room temperature until the initial moisture content present before the osmopriming was reached. The experiments were carried out with four simultaneous replicates of 20 seeds each. In order to observe the temperature effects the seeds were incubated at 10ºC (suboptimal), 27ºC (optimal) and 35ºC (supra optimal). The exhaustion test was carried out and evaluated after submersion for 24, 48, 72 h, followed by germination at 27ºC. Seed aging for 24, 48, 72 h at 45% and 100% R.U. was evaluated in seeds primed after or before aging, electrical conductivity was evaluated after seed submersion for 24 h in deionized water at 20ºC. The results indicated that the osmopriming carried out at 10ºC was more efficient than that realized at 27ºC, but it was not possible to fix the best period of osmopriming in all tests.
osmopriming; acelerated aging; KNO3 + PEG 6000
