• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2001

Dormancy of intact zoysiagrass seeds hinders its seed propagation in which presowing seed treatment must be done to overcome it. The study was done to remodel the presowing treatments of zoysiagrass seeds by determining the treatment effects of seedcoat softening, prechilling, drying and combined light treatment with them or during germination stage. Seedcoat softening with different chemicals (NaOH 20%, KOH 20%, $H_2SO_4\;8M, acetone 20%) and periods (10, 30, 60 min.), prechilling with different periods at 3$^{\circ}C$, and drying with 4 hours at 35$^{\circ}C$ was done. Light sources were also applied with 660 nm red LED light, commercial fluorescent and incandescent light and darkness. Germination test was done in alternative day and night temperature of 35 and 2$0^{\circ}C$ to check the daily germination rates. With seeds treated with NaOH 20% for 30 minutes, red and incandescent light showing similar responses inclined their germination rates compared to dark conditions. Drying resulted in its higher rate than non-drying but fluorescent light treatment forced during drying more enhanced the rate than red light. While mean germination rate considering all the seedcoat softening treatment periods was the greatest in $H_2SO_4$ in comparison with NaOH, KOH and acetone, NaOH treatment for 30 minutes showed the best rate among the all the treatment levels. In the conditions of sowing them to no-mulching field, presowing treatment procedure of zoysiagrass seeds was remodeled: the seedcoat softening treatment with NaOH 20% for 30 minutes was done, washed, and chilled at 3$^{\circ}C$ for 2 weeks before dried under 4 hour fluorescent light illumination at 35$^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.210-215
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• 1998

Solomon's seal (Polygonatum odoratum) was traditionally propagated by its rhizomes but seed propagation has not been practiced due to their dormancy and high price. To improve the seedling production through seed pretreatments, the experiment was conducted to determine the effect of seedcoat softening and seed prechilling on seed germination and bulbil formation of the seal. The prechilling was done for 4 to 16 weeks at $3^{\circ}C$ and the softening was forced with 10% KOH for 40 minutes. Seed germination, bulbil formation and length, no. of root and root length were measured at 6 and 12 weeks after sowing. Seed germination and bulbil formation were greater at 8 to 12 week prechilling than at shorter or longer treatment when only the prechilling was enforced. Prechilling had greater effect compared to seed coat softening. In addition, the softening treatment before prechilling showed higher germination and bulbil formation compared to single treatment of them. The softening treatment prior to prechilling was better than the reverse treatment in number of root except the above two characters. Duration of prechilling treatment was able to be shortened below 8 weeks when the softening treatment was applied before prechilling.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.169-172
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• 2003

Intact seeds of burcucumber (Sicyos angulatus L.) are not nearly germinated so that the farmers remove their arils before sowing. The study was carried out to measure the effort of aging, chilling, washing, chemical treatment, drying, and their sequential treatments on the germination of ones with arils and the seedling emergence. The seeds extruding over 1mm of their radicles and the seedlings with fully expanded cotyledons were counted daily for calculating the germination and the seedling emergence rates. Seedcoat softening using 10% NaOH solution somewhat enhanced their germination rate of the intact seeds harvested in the current year, but aging treatment done on 6 days at $45^{\circ}C$ after NaOH treatment increased the germination rate more than only NaOH treatment. A day washing after the NaOH treatment and a day chilling after the washing increasingly elevated the rates as well. Irrigation of 0.2% $\textrm{KNO}_3$ solution, moreover, showed the greatest germination rate of the priming treatments done during all the 7 day chilling. Drying the seeds after the combined treatment of chilling and priming more inclined the germination rate than nondrying ones, but red light treated during 24 hour desiccation was more effective in the germination rate increment than dark condition. The seeds done the sequential treatments of aging, NaOH, washing, combining chilling and priming and drying under red light illumination were germinated up to 80% but seedlings were emerged to 60%, lower than ones removed their arils.