Self fruit extract and vitamin-C improves tomato seed germination

In general seeds within the fruit do not germinate due to germination inhibitory effects of fruit pulp except viviparous germination. Tomato seeds loose viability and germination percentage up to 50% within one year after fresh extraction. This common problem can be overcome by several costly seed pre-treatments which are of great interest in the seed industry. GA and ABA regulated germination have been studied extensively. In this study we practiced an uncommon and low cost seed treatment using four different dilutions of 17 fruit (tropical and temperate) extracts and to evaluate their effects on Tomato seed germination and to identify the non-hormonal fruit pulp components those regulate dormancy and germination. The result showed both promotion and inhibition of germination depending on concentrations of fruit extracts. In general, germination was promoted at the early rather than later parts and with lower concentrations. Dramatically, low concentration of Tomato extract (2%) that contains 0.30mg/100ml ascorbic acid and 0.109% total sugars accelerated its own germination in a significant way and also showed better seedling vigor similar to the pre-treatment with 0.20 mg/100 ml Ascorbic acid. As per our knowledge this is the first of its kind of report that pre-treatment with low concentration Tomato extract improves self germination. We concluded that low concentration of total sugars and Vitamin-C of this particular dilution of Tomato extract promotes germination and improves seedling vigor. This unique treatment can effectively be practiced as an alternative pre-sowing seed treatment for Tomato cultivation.