Investigation of dormancy and storage potential of seeds of yellow passion fruit

Passiflora actinia Hooker is a passion fruit species native to Brazil, typically found in the Atlantic and Araucaria Forests. It has economic relevance (edible fruit) and medicinal value (sedative and anxiolytic properties), in addition to being used for vegetative propagation, as rootstock for other Passiflora species. This study aimed at investigating the occurrence of dormancy in P. actinia seeds, and at evaluating their storage potential. The germination test considered different combinations of temperature and lighting regimes, whereas seed dormancy was assessed using different germination-inducing treatments (tegument cutting, warm water immersion, and gibberellin application). Seed viability during storage was also appraised. The results showed that seed germination should be conducted on paper at the alternating temperature of 20-30 degrees C, without lighting. Also, newly-harvested seeds presented physical and physiological dormancies. The immersion of seeds in water at 40 degrees C or 50 degrees C (for 5 or 10 minutes) proved to be efficient in breaking the physical dormancy. Physiological dormancy, in turn, was successfully interrupted by applying 100 mg.L-1 of gibberellic acid on the substrate paper. The storage of seeds under refrigeration, inside hermetically sealed polyethylene packaging, preserved their physiological quality for up to nine months.