Abstract: Wild eggplant Solanum torvum is very popular as an eggplant rootstock in graft seedling production. There are several issues of Solanum torvum in the current seed market, such as too many supply channels and uneven seed quality. In the present experiment, ten sources of Solanum torvum were used as materials to study the effect of GA₃ concentration and GA₃ soaking duration on seed germination potential, seed germination rate (GR) and seed germination index (GI). It was found that seed germination potential and seed germination rate were significantly different among these ten Solanum torvum seeds without GA₃ treatment, and there were only two sources of Solanum torvum seeds whose germination rate were more than 90%. The source of Solanum torvum and GA₃ concentration had significant effects on seed germination rate and seed germination index, and GA₃ soaking duration had significant effect on seed germination index. There were significant effects of interaction on seed germination rate in Solanum torvum seed source×GA₃ concentration, GA₃ concentration×GA₃ soaking duration, and Solanum torvum seed source×GA₃ concentration×GA₃ soaking duration. Moreover, there were significant interactive effects on GI in the source of Solanum torvum seed×GA₃ concentration, the source of Solanum torvum seed×GA₃ soaking duration, GA₃ concentration×GA₃ soaking duration, and Solanum torvum seed source×GA₃ concentration×GA₃ soaking duration. It suggested that each source of Solanum torvum demanded respective GA₃ concentration and GA₃ soaking duration to obtain the best germination performance. In addition, the germination rate of most Solanum torvum seed sources were lower than that mentioned on the seed packing bag.

Key words: eggplant rootstock, Solanum torvum, GA₃ concentration, GA₃ soaking duration, seed germination rate, seed germination time