EFFECT OF THE BIOSTIMULATOR ‘ASAHI SL’ ON SEED GERMINATION OF A FEW CULTIVARS OF TOMATO (LYCOPERSICON ESCULENTUM MILL.)

The seeds were soaked for 5 hours, in the darkness, at 20ºC in the distilled water and 0.25% and 0.75% solutions of biostimulator Asahi SL (0.3% sodium 1-nitrophenolate + 0.2% sodium 4-nitrophenolate + 0.1% sodium 5-nitroguaiacolate). After drying at 20ºC for 24 hours, they were then tested for germination at 15ºC and 20ºC. The significant effect of the used cultivar was found out, when seeds of them were treated with water and bio stimulator. The following responses were recorded: lack of effect, tendency to improve or make worse the investigated parameter and positive or negative effect. The positive effect was found in the case of a few parameters at 20ºC. In the cultivar ‘Korsarz’ Asahi SL increased the germination energy from 33.0% to 37.7% (0.25%) and 45.7% (0.50%), whereas the germination capacity from 49.7% to 64.3%. The effect of shortening the mean germination time (MGT) was reached when using 0.75% Asahi SL (shortening from 5.0 to 4.2 days) and 0.5% Asahi SL (shortening from 5.0 to 4.3 days) in the cultivar ‘Ryton’. When 0.25% Asahi SL was used in the cultivar ‘Koralik’ the T₅₀ was shortened from 9.2 to 8.5 days. The positive effects of the bio stimulator treatments were also found out at 15ºC. For the cultivar ‘Ju Huang’, the conditioning of seeds improved their germination capacity. Treatment of the seeds with water and Asahi SL decreased the percentage of the healthy ungerminated seeds. The conditioning improved G_max in the cultivar ‘Ju Huang’. In all tested cultivars, except the cultivar ‘Ryton’, in majority of cases, the conditioning shortened the MGT and T₅₀. The best effect was received when 0.5% Asahi SL solution for the cultivar ‘Koralik’ was applied (shortening from 12.5 to 11.8 days). The received results were analysed statistically using the Duncan test for α=0.05. The conditioning, in the case of the cultivar ‘Jokato’ increased or had a tendency to increase the fresh weight of the seedlings. However, no distinct differences were found between the seeds treated with water and Asahi SL.