The rapid and uniform germination of seeds, followed by prompt emergency are highly desirable characteristics for seedlings formation. This research aimed to determine the effect of different level of vermiculite substrate wetting on the emergency percentage and vigor of peach palm seedlings. The wetting of vermiculite with water in quantities from 60 to 90 ml/100 g of substrate (from 0.6 to 0.9 x the weight of water or 77.6 to 86.7% of the retention capacity of the substrate in water, respectively) had shown higher emergence percentage of seedlings. The wetting with 90 ml water /100 g of vermiculite resulted in the higher speed of emergency and vigor of seedlings (length, diameter and mass).
germination; seedlings; Bactris gasipaes; vermiculite
