The objective of this study was to establish the duration of phase II of seed germination of two parsley cultivars seeds with different origins, under two soaking temperatures, viewing to gather data for future planning of osmotic conditioning studies. Parsley seeds of the ‘Lisa’ and ‘Portuguesa’ cultivars from two lots were soaked in moistened filter paper under the temperatures of 25 and 30 °C in an incubator chamber. For each treatment, four repetitions of 1.0g of seeds were used. The evaluations were made every 24 hours, when the seeds were removed from the incubator, carefully dried and weighed in a digital scale (0.001g), up until the protrusion of the primary root of at least a seed of each repetition of each treatment, when the seeds were discarded and the previous reading was considered. For each treatment, a third degree equation adjusted to the three-phase germination pattern was established viewing to delineate the beginning, the end, and the duration of phase II of the germination process. After the third degree equation was determined, the roots of the second degree equation, the points of inflexion of the curves and the amount of water absorbed by the seeds until the beginning of phase II (first point of inflexion of the curve) were calculated. Phase II of the parsley seed water absorption pattern started between 59.7 and 93.3 hours, and lasted between 56.7 and 91.6 hours. In parsley seeds, osmotic conditioning at 25°C should be interrupted between 122.5 and 148.4 hours, and, at 30°C, between 124.9 and 184.9 hours.
Petroselinum sativum; soaking; germination; three-phase pattern; curve of absorption
