1. Effect of Soaking, Moist Chilling, and Temperature on Germination of Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum) Seed Anthony Bourgoin and Dale Simpson Canadian Forest Service Fredericton, NB

2. Range of Striped Maple

3. Silvics Small tree up to 10 m tall Grows on well-drained, cool moist soils Shade tolerant Flowers in late May; seed falls mid October Trees are monoecious and/or dioecious

4. Identification

5. Dormancy Embryo – inhibitors Testa – reduces imbibition – reduces leaching of inhibitors – restricts radicle elongation Pericarp

7. Experimental Design 5 Seed lots – 3 single-tree, 2 bulk 4 Soaks – 0, 48, 72, 96 hours 3 Chill times – 16, 24, 32 weeks 2 Germination temp. regimes – 5/15°C, 20/30°C 4 Replications of 25 seed each

9. Germination Assessed every 7 days for 56 days (8 weeks) Successful germinants had properly developed cotyledons, hypocotyl and radicle Cutting test done on ungerminated seed

11. Data Analysis Total germination at 8 weeks Data transformed by arcsin square root Data analyzed using SAS

12. Impact of Soaking Time on Seed Moisture Content Soaking time (hrs)Seed MC (%) 0 7.9 4858.7 7263.5 9665.8 Results

13. Seed lot Mean germ. Soak time Mean germ. Chill time Mean germ. Germ. temp. Mean germ. 117 *65 a 1 052 a1648 a 5/1590 a 12058 a4857 b2459 b20/3023 b 118 *53 b7259 b3262 c 11968 c9658 b 123 *39 d 1 means with different letters are significantly different at P=0.05 * single-tree collection

14. Results 5/15°C 20/30°C

15. Results 16 weeks chill 32 weeks chill

16. Conclusions Soaking seed for 48 hours was sufficient to promote high germination Moist chilling for 16 weeks was adequate to promote high germination Seed germination was maximized at temperatures of 5/15°C Secondary dormancy was induced at germination temperatures of 20/30°C