The proportion of D. bigibbum var. compactum seeds thatgerminated on VW semi-solid medium without chitosan was foundto be quite low at only 10.5%. Compared to the seed viabilityof 32.6%,this represents a germination level of only approximately one-thirdof the viable seeds. The addition of 70 or 80% deacetylated chitosancaused a trend of decreasing germination rates with increasingchitosan concentrations for both the polymer and oligomer forms,but statistically this was only significantly different from the controlat the highest tested dose (80 mg/L) of P70, P80 and O70. In contrast,both the polymer and oligomer forms of chitosan with 90%deacetylation showed no significant effect upon the germinationrate at all four tested doses. Although numerically the addition of10 mg/L of O70 or P80 chitosan resulted in an enhanced seedgermination rate when compared to the treatment without chitosanaddition, these were not statistically significant (Fig. 4A). Therefore,none of the six types and four doses of chitosan tested were suitablefor enhancing the seed germination in D. bigibbum var. compactum.Even after taking account of the low seed viability (32.6%), and thusthe potential near 1/3 dilution effect of any effective changes in theseed germination rates, only P80 at 10 mg/L and O70 at both 10 and20 mg/L would be likely to have any slight effect of increasedgermination (ca. 10.5% to 13.7, 15.0 and 12.2%, respectively