Under CopyrightSomborn, AnnetteSchlehuber, DennisPiotrowski, MarkusHemschemeier, AnjaFranz, SophiaSophiaFranz2023-12-072023-12-072023https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/457688https://doi.org/10.24406/publica-227210.24406/publica-2272This bachelor thesis focuses on different priming techniques for Tropaeolum majus (T. majus) seeds reaching from mechanical scarification to cold stratification. Furthermore, chemical stratification by using different concentrations of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) (0 %, 47.5 %, 95 %) for three different soak times (5 min, 10 min, 30 min) were also conducted, in the context of an indoor farming project at Fraunhofer UMSICHT. In total two preliminary experiments were done consecutively in a plant growth chamber, sowing on cultivation and potting soil. After that two main experiments were conducted identically to the preliminary experiments, but seeds were additionally sowed in the greenhouse “ALTMARKTgarten” on greenhouse soil. The preliminary test revealed that seed lot harvested in 10/2021 was too old, compared to the main experiments, where seed lot harvested in 06/2023 was used. The boxplot depiction of all main experiments, showed trends toward mechanical scarification, reaching levels between 80 % to 100 % (main no. 3). Except for the main experiment no. 4 sowed on cultivation soil, in which the highest germination percentage (GP) was seen when the seeds were primed with 47.5 % H2SO4 for 10 min (n = 6, on replicate = average of 5 seeds). Additionally, for the chemical stratification trials response surface methodology (RSM) was conducted, using central composite design (CCD) and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to de-termine whether the results happened by coincidence or by effect. For all experiments the null hypotheses, saying that chemical stratification has no effect, was rejected, except for the ex-periment sown on cultivated soil (main no. 3), where the chosen model did not fit. It was also investigated whether concentration, soak time or the interaction of both factors contributed to the effect on GP. The results of the ANOVA showed varying results between the soil materi-als and the repetition of the main experiments. Therefore, no statement can be made as to which factor is decisive, as the sample size (n = 6, one repetition average of 5 seeds) was too low and high fluctuations of seed germination were observed in every conducted experiment. Summarizing, not all priming treatment enhance the GP. H2O (= 0 % H2SO4) priming with soak times of 5, 10 and 30 min, showing rates between 0%-60% (except outliers) are not recom-mended. Seeds primed by cold stratification showed varying tendencies in the GP. Neverthe-less, seeds germinated on all tested soil materials (pH = 5-6).enbachelor thesis