Search Results
Seeds of celery, spinach, onion, cress, water cress, iceberg lettuce, Great Lakes lettuce, cabbage, tomato, sweet corn and celery were pre-treated with 0.1 μM/g seed of both ABA and analogs of ABA. The chemicals were dissolved in a mixture of methanol:hexane (9:1/v:v) and applied to the seeds for approximately 3 minutes. The solvent was removed from the seeds within 5 minutes by rotary evaporation under reduced pressure. Effects on petri plate germination and soil emergence were monitored daily at 5, 10 and 15°C. The methanol/hexane solvent alone improved spinach seed emergence at 10°C from 10% to 100% and from 50% to 90% at 15°C in celery. Certain ABA analogs reduced time to 50% emergence in celery by at least 7 days at 15°C. Two ABA analogs synchronized emergence in celery and effect was temperature-dependent. One analog improved seed germination in tomato from 15% to 90% at 10°C. In most cases treatment effects on radicle germination on petri plates was not a good indicator of treatment effects on emergence from a soil based system.