Improving seed germination and seedling growth of guava under heat and osmotic stresses by chemical and hormonal seed treatments

ABSTRACT This study, consisting of two independent experiments, was conducted to optimize presowing guava seed treatments and evaluate the optimized treatments in improving germination and seedling growth of guava under heat and osmotic stresses. In the first experiment, seeds of guava cultivar White Flesh Local I were soaked in water, gibberellic acid (GA3) (0.05 and 0.1%), hydrochloric acid (HCl) (5 and 10%) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) (5 and 10%) for 24 and 48 h (for water and GA3), and 2 and 5 min (for HCl and H2SO4). Seed soaking (priming) with GA3 (0.1%, at 48 h) and HCl (10%, 2 min) were ...