Germination Response of Different Castor Bean Genotypes to Temperature for Early and Late Sowing Adaptation in the Mediterranean Regions

Valeria Cafaro (), Efthymia Alexopoulou, Salvatore Luciano Cosentino and Cristina Patanè
Additional contact information
Valeria Cafaro: Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Efthymia Alexopoulou: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving, 19th km Marathonos Avenue, 19009 Pikermi, Greece
Salvatore Luciano Cosentino: Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123 Catania, Italy
Cristina Patanè: CNR-Istituto per la BioEconomia (IBE), Sede secondaria di Catania, Via P. Gaifami 18, 95126 Catania, Italy

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Germination of castor seeds of seven dwarf hybrid genotypes, compared to a ‘Local’ genotype, selected from a Tunisian population by the University of Catania well adapted to the Mediterranean environment, were studied at six different temperatures (8, 12, 16, 25, 32, and 40 °C). The results indicate that the optimal temperature (25 °C) and near-optimal temperature (32 °C) are the best temperatures for ensuring castor germination (final germination percentage (FGP) ≥ 82.81%). Furthermore, these temperatures positively influenced the vigour index (VI) and the radicle elongation. At a temperature of 8 °C, no germination occurred, while temperatures of 12 and 40 °C negatively affected the seed germination, which, in some genotypes, was null or negligible (<21.25%). A temperature of 16 °C allowed good results to be reached for the FGP and the other considered parameters. Overall, the dwarf hybrids performed better at high temperatures than at low temperatures, thus, making them suitable for late sowings, with the exception of the genotype ‘C1020’, which resulted the best performance at 16 and 40 °C, being suitable for both early and late sowings. On the other hand, the ‘Local’ castor genotype, being the best-performing genotype at 12 and 16 °C, and the most tolerant to low temperature (base temperature ( T b) 12.1 °C), could be used in the early sowing in spring.

Keywords: cardinal temperatures; dwarf hybrids; seed germination; seed vigour; synchrony (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/8/1569/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/8/1569/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:8:p:1569-:d:1211674

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().