Physiological behaviour of cork-oak acorns (Quercus suber L.) during storage and variation between trees.

The mature acorns were harvested on twelve selected trees from a cork oak population in Southern Portugal (Herdade da Palma). After drying, the seed lots were stored on three types bags (polyethylene with 30 mum and 50 mum thick and plastic mesh), for six months at 0 degreesC. At the time of natural dissemination, the acorns from the majority of the trees from the same population were under the same state of morphological and physiological maturity. The moisture content was about 44-47% and a germination rate above 92%. At this time, the germination was very slow because of the existent embryonic dormancy that seems to be dependent on the individual trees. During the storage, germination rate is improved. This might be explained by the breaking dormancy during storage. The mean germination time was on an average 10 days for fresh seeds and decreased to about 4 days after 6 months storage. A relationship between viability and seed moisture content was observed. The Mean Germination Time of dried seed and stored seed for 4 months in plastic mesh bag increased to about 13 days. The germination capacity was strongly decreased when the seed moisture content was below 30%.