Germination and viability tests of three conifers through storage time in the Seed Vauld of the Forestry Commission from the Michoacán State

Abstract

The diversity of forests in Mexico is affected by rapid population growth, which has causes forest resources to be used in an
accelerated way, thus increasing deforestation rates. For this, there are governmental institutions such as the Germplasm Bank of the State Forestry Commission, which is in charge of the collection, processing, storage and analysis of seeds (forest germplasm), for later production in the nursery. In the present study, the percentage of viability (PV) and the percentage of germination (PG) of the seed lots of three species of the genus Pinus stored in cold storage (Pinus michoacana, P. montezumae y P. pseudostrobus) were evaluated, considering the storage time (16 years), as a variation agent, with the aim of proposing its registration. The Generalized Liner Model and linear regression showed differences in the averages of both percentages when comparing them between species, being those of P. michoacana greater ( 74.34%) and lower those of P. montezumae (64.66%), by species P. michoacana (190 batches) only in PG there was a difference with a positive trend when increasing the storage time, in P. montezumae (216 batches) there was also a difference when comparing the storage time, a decrease in these percentages was observed with increasing storage time, and for P. pseudostrobus (130 batches) there was no difference, in terms of the representative lot of each species (222131-A02, 323152-A03, 322147-A02= batch number), there was no difference in relation to time storage. As a conclusion, both by species and by each lot, it is not possible to propose that they are still suitable to be kept in storage, since they do not present sufficient evidence of a possible downward trend in their percentages of viability and germination in relation to storage time.