Effect of storage temperature on seed longevity in Tillandsia species
The effect of temperature was tested by using ambient and cool storage temperatures for seeds of T. recurvata and T. hubertiana because of the availability of seeds.
Cool storage was carried out in a commercial refrigerator (Supermatic, 7 cubic ft) where mean cool temperatures ranged from 7 to 11◦C during the experiment, meaning that seeds were stored at 12–18◦C lower than those stored at ambient temperature (Fig. 3b).
Mean ambient temperatures ranged from 20 to 29◦C (Fig. 3a).
Temperatures under both storage conditions were recorded hourly, every day for a year, with a data logger(Onset Corp., HoBo-ProSeries model H08-32-IS).
As in the previous experiment, 12 batches were used chronologically per species and treatment for the germination experiments, with three Petri dishes used in each experiment. The response variable was seed germination percentage.