Abstract

Wood-apple [Feronia limonia (L.) Swingle] is a fruit plant in the Rutaceae family with many uses. Wood-apple is usually propagated by using its seeds, but information about wood-apple seed quality is hardly available. One of the factors that determine the quality of the seeds is seed maturity. The maximum vigour of seed was achieved when the seeds reached physiological maturity. There was no information of wood-apple fruit harvest time related to seed physiological maturity. Therefore, the research on seed physiological maturity of wood-apple based on fruit age was conducted. Wood-apple fruits used for this study were taken from the village Dasun, district Lasem, Rembang, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design (CRD) consisting of eight fruit age of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 months after anthesis and mature fruit exactly detached from the tree, hereinafter called the fallen mature fruit. The results showed that wood-apple seeds reached their physiological maturity when mature fruits exactly detached from the tree, or called the fallen mature fruit at the age of 8.25 to 8.75 months after anthesis. Physiological maturity of wood-apple seed was chracterized by the seed dry weight, germination percentage and seedling emergence percentage which had reached the maximum i. e. 0.0306 g, 97.71% and 96.67%, respectively. Conversely seed moisture content and electrical conductivity had reached the minimum 13.01% and 1.16 mS, respectively.