Seeds germination of tart yellow passion fruit as influenced by heat treatment. = Germina o de sementes de maracujá amarelo azedo em fun o de tratamentos térmicos.

The study aimed to determine the effects of heat treatments applied to seeds of bitter yellow passionfruit (/Passiflora edulis/ Sims f. flavicarpa DEG) in the uniformity of seed germination. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks under a factorial scheme (3 x 2) +1, the factors being temperature (40, 50 and 60°C) and time of water immersion (10 and 15 minutes) plus a control (ambient temperature), with four replicates. The characteristics evaluated were: percentage of germination and speed of germination, being obtained both accumulated germination within 13 days and average germination velocity index. Concerning to cumulative germination percentage, treatments can be grouped into three groups as follows: first group, treatment T1D2 with 74.5%; second group with treatments T0, T1D1 and T2D2 with 55%, 53% and 52.5% respectively; third group with treatments T2D1, T3D1 and T3D2 with 35.5%, 17% and 13.5% respectively. Treatment with bitter passion fruit seed immersion in water heated to 40 oC for 15 minutes showed 75% germination and a better uniformity of seedlings.