Técnicas avanzadas en secado y almacenamiento de semillas -Hieronyma alchornoides en Costa Rica

Abstract

Hieronyma alchornoides is a native specie from the South of Mexico down to the Amazonia in Brasil and the Antilles, it grows in the humid and very humid tropic, below the 900 masl, with rainfall between 2000 and 6000 mm and 20 to 26°C. The wood has a density of 0.63 g/cm3. In Costa Rica this specie is being planted with good results. The purpose of this work was to define the best techniques for the seeds management. The desiccation trials applied, pointed out that the seeds desiccated at 3.3 of moisture content (MC), presented 70 percent of germination. The seeds stored with the same MC and at 5°C of temperature germinated 50.5 percent after three months at 6 months the germination was of 38.5 percent and at 12 months was of 18 percent. With these results the conclusion is that the H. alchornoides seeds are intermediates, and can be stored by short time periods in plastic bags with CH of 3.3 to 12.2 percent and at temperatures from 5 to 15°C.