The Effects of Light and Temperature on Germination of Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana BERT.) Seeds

Year 2016, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 37 - 40, 31.03.2016

Esra Uçar , Yaşar Özyiğit , Kenan Turgut

https://doi.org/10.19159/tutad.76528

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni is a perennial herbaceous plant and belongs to family of Asteraceae
(Compositae). The contents of S. rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni consist mainly non-caloric stevioside and rebaudioside A
sweeteners. Low seed germination is an important problem in stevia cultivation. Therefore in this study, the effects of light
and temperature on germination performance of stevia seeds were studied. Stevia rebaudiana seeds were treated with two
lights (light/darkness) and four different temperatures (15 ºC, 20 ºC, 25 ºC, 30 ºC). For each treatment, 50 seeds were
counted and placed into petri dishes. Experiments were conducted as a randomized complete design method with three
replicates. Germination was started within 6 to 10 days depending on the treatments. The highest seed germination rate
(71%) was observed in darkness/25 ºC temperature and followed by darkness/20 ºC (68%) and light/25 ºC (67%). On the
other hand, the lowest seed germination rate (31%) was obtained from 15 ºC in both light and dark conditions and followed
by darkness/30 ºC (43%) and light/30 ºC (49%). The results showed that lower (15 ºC) and higher (30 ºC) temperatures
significantly decreased the germination rates of stevia independently from the light treatments.

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