Effects of exogenous hormones treatments before picking on peeling and storage of Ginkgo biloba seeds

Effects of exogenous hormones treatments before picking on peeling and storage of Ginkgo biloba seeds were studied in this paper. The exogenous hormones treatments were ethephon 20, 100, 500 mg/L, abscisic acid 20, 100, 500 mg/L, 891 vegetable growth-regulating substance 20, 100, 500 mg/L. It showed that the ethephon 500 mg/L treatment made the respiration peak come 4 days after picking, and made ginkgo exocarps soft enough to be peel 6 days after picking. This treatment also led to less floating rate, weight loss rate and hardening rate, and kept the contents of starch, reduced sugar, fat, and protein relatively high, which indicated that this treatment was suitable for seeds to be stored as food. The 891 vegetable growth-regulating substance 500 mg/L treatment kept the activities of β-amylase, PE, PG, CAT and lipase relatively high, which indicated that this treatment was suitable for seeds to be stored as seedling. The abscisic acid 500 mg/L treatment had similar effects on storage compared with the ethephon 500 mg/L, but it made the leaves fall significantly. Therefore, this treatment was not highly recommended. The effects of exogenous hormones treatments before picking on physiology of Ginkgo biloba seeds were also discussed in this paper.