Nowadays, people are more and more concerned with healthy food, and they are looking for ecological labeled products, hence the need for novel crop varieties with increased stress resistance in addition to other desirable organoleptic traits. Local Romanian varieties that are already proved to be adapted to local conditions can be used to develop new organic varieties with superior traits. Indicators of seed germination process, such as germination capacity, time, rate, and synchrony are taken into consideration by the plant breeders for the creation of a new crop variety. In the present study, nine Romanian tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) varieties (Kristinica, Florina 44, Andrada, Buzău 1600, Buzău 47, Argeș 11, Argeș 20, Ștefănești 24 and Ștefănești 22) and seven pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) varieties (Decebal, Vladimir, Galben Superior, Splendens, Cosmin, Roial and Cantemir) were compared during seed germination process. Seeds were sown on glass Petri dishes on filter paper disks soaked with distilled water. Each variety was replicated three times, and each replicate counted 30 seeds. Seeds were considered germinated when the radicle reached a length of at least 2 mm. The germination process was considered finished when no new seed germinated for three days in a row. Several indicators such as percentage of germination, mean germination time, mean germination rate, homogeneity and synchrony, as well as the seed size, were calculated. Differences among varieties were assessed by ANOVA. Significant differences were observed among the varieties in the end of the survey for all indicators assessed. These differences in the germination indicators can be correlated in future studies with genotype variation among the varieties and can be used as a basis for genotype-assisted breeding programs, by selecting for a desirable trait, such as synchronous germination, or short germination time, or against undesirable trait, such as low percentage of germination. Romanian varieties

Capsicum, germination, Romanian varieties, Solanum

biology

Presentation: poster