Effect of substrates on the emergence of a Cerrado grass

Resumo

The large-scale production of non-tree species seedlings is an obstacle for advancing the ecological restoration of grasslands and savannas worldwide. We tested different substrates to verify the seedling emergence of the species Aristida jubata (Arechav.) Herter - Poaceae. We collected seeds in a “campo sujo” site – a grassland physiognomy of the Cerrado biome in São Paulo state, Brazil. Four substrates were tested in a random blocks experimental design: sand; sand+vermiculite; vermiculite and clayey soil. We used four replicates of 25 seeds –100 seeds per treatment. For statistical analyses we adopted ANOVA followed by Tukey test (p=0.05). We found positive significant effect in vermiculite substrate, where the average emergence reached 70%; the emergence rates in sand+vermiculite, sand and clayey soil tended to lower values.