EFFECT OF STORAGE AND PLANT HORMONES IN GERMINATION OF ARATICUM SEEDS (Annona crassiflora Mart.)

Araticum seeds (Annona crassiflora Mart.) have a slow and uneven pattern of germination, negatively affecting its propagation. The experiment was conducted from March/1999 through November/2001, at the Goiás State Federal University, Agronomy and Food Engineering School, using seeds coming from trees growing in natural environment in the Northeast region of Goiás State. At random, one ripe fruit per tree was collected from fifty trees scattered in the region. One collect took place in 1999 and seeds were stored for 365 days and then evaluated. Seeds from another fifty plants were collected in March 2000 and immediately evaluated. Dormancy break treatments were: control, distilled water, gebberellic acid (GA3) 1000 ppm, cytokinin (BAP) 1000 ppm, and GA3 + BAP 500 ppm. Seeds were sowed in black polyethylene bags with coarse washed sand, forest topsoil, and subsoil (3:3:4). One year of seed storage did not result in an adequate germination rate for any of the treatments. GA3 1000 ppm was efficient to break dormancy of recently collected seeds. Seeds of this species must be sown right after extraction from fruit. KEY-WORDS: Cerrado fruit trees; germination; gebberellic acid; cytokinin.