Germination issues in the cultivation of Echinacea angustifolia in Tasmania

TL;DRAbstract

Echinacea angustifolia is a sought after medicinal herb originating from the Prairies of North America, however efforts to grow the species commercially have been hampered by seed dormancy. Seed pre-treatments had been successful in vitro but translation to field situations had been met with varying degrees of success. Pretreatment of seeds also carried a risk of loss because of reduced viability over the time involved with pretreatment. This study investigated the most commonly used seed pretreatments and their effects on germination of E. angustifolia under laboratory, glasshouse and field conditions. It also investigated whether the manipulation of temperature and time would reduce the pretreatment period. The field experiment examined variation in sowing times and hence the use of natural climatic conditions to eliminate the need for chemical, or other, pretreatments. Stratification or moist chilling is the most widely used method of seed pretreatment for overcoming dormancy in E.

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