Germination Performance and Vigour of Pepper Seeds Stored in Different Environmental Conditions at Different Storage Periods

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important fruit vegetable belonging to the family Solanaceae. The demand for this crop as a vegetable has increased especially in the urban centres, however, availability of quality seeds for sustainable production to meet the high demand has become a big challenge. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of three storage environments on germination and vigour of pepper seeds. The experiment was arranged in 2 x 3 x 4 factorial using completely randomized design (CRD) in three replication. The factors were two accessions of pepper, three storage environments and four storage periods. The laboratory experiment was carried out at The National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) Ibadan, Nigeria starting from April 2015 to January 2016 which constituted four storage periods. The stored seed samples were drawn at three-month intervals and evaluated for germination and germination index. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the effects of accession, storage environment and storage period were highly significant (P< .01) on germination of pepper seeds. Similarly, the effects of accession and storage environment were highly significant (P<.01) on germination index. The germination percentage for accession NGB 001010 was significantly higher (68.9%) than accession NGB 001066 which had germination percentage of 61.1%. In addition, germination index for NGB 001010 was significantly lower (5.3 days) compared with that of NGB 001066 which took about 5.9 days to germinate. Seeds stored under ambient conditions gave the lowest germination percentage (53.4%) and highest germination index (6.1 days). The germination percentages of seeds stored under short (70.3%) and medium (71.3%) term conditions were not significantly different. Similarly, germination index of seeds stored under short (5.6 days) and medium (5.5 days) term conditions were not significantly different. Moreover, germination declined as the storage time increased. The study suggests both short-term (15.1 to 21.30C) and medium term (-4.2 to 3.40C) conditions as effective storage environments for storing pepper seeds. In addition, the seeds must be stored inside moisture-prove packaging materials.