Background and Objective: Selection of appropriate seed size has become a huge challenge considering the anticipation of bumper harvest.The study evaluated the effect of seed sizes on the growth and development of three legumes (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp., Arachis hypogaea L. and Glycine max (L.) Merrill) grown in Nigeria.Materials and Methods: The seeds of V. unguiculata, A. hypogea and G. max were sorted according to their sizes (length×breath) and grouped into 'big-size', 'medium-size' and 'small-size', respectively: V. unguiculata (1.08×0.62 cm, 0.65×0.44cm, and 0.48×0.16cm), A. hypogea (1.59×0.72 cm, 1.10×0.65 cm and 0.62×0.19cm) and G. max (0.51×0.42 cm, 0.40×0.38cm and 0.30×0.28cm).After planting, the parameters investigated were plant height, stem girth, number of leaves and leaf area while the chlorophyll content, biomass and dry matter of the plants were determined 8 weeks after planting.Results: The study showed that big-size seeds of V. unguiculata, A. hypogea and G. max enhanced the plant height, stem girth, number of leaves, leaf area, biomass and dry matter when compared to other seed sizes while small-size seeds recorded the least values for plant height.However, the chlorophyll a and b content of V. unguiculata was high with medium-size seeds and least with small-size seeds.Again, for A. hypogea and G. max, the small-size seed had the highest chlorophyll a and b content while the big-size seed recorded the least values.Conclusion: The study, therefore, recommends the use of big-size seeds of V. unguiculata, A. hypogea and G. max for planting because of the presence of more endosperm that supports early growth.
Background and Objective: Sapindus saponaria L. is a plant species of pharmacological importance and also with the potential for the production of biodiesel.Thus, the present study developed a protocol for the cryopreservation of S. saponaria seeds and applied physiological and vigor characters to define the best water content for cryogenic storage, the best defrosting method and assessments on the need for treatment with cryoprotectants.Materials and Methods: The study was developed in two tests, the first defining the best water content for storage and defrosting method.In a second test, seeds were stored with the best water content defined in test 1, under the action or not of cryoprotectants DMSO (10%) and glycerol (10%) and defrosted the seeds applying the best defrosting method also evidenced in test 1.Evaluation of seeds was done at 60, 120 and 180 days of storage in liquid nitrogen.Results: The best germination performance, emergence, emergence speed index (IVE) and germination after accelerated seed aging was observed in seeds stored with 6% water content and thawed quickly in the microwave.Regarding the use of cryoprotectants, this use can be indicated or not, depending on the storage time.Conclusion: Seeds cryoprotected and stored for periods less than or equal to 120 days exhibited inferior performance with regard to emergence, total length and dry seedling mass.
Background and Objectives: The selection of plus-trees with high seed vigour is an important step towards efficient ex situ conservation of forest genetic resources and plantation development.The study classified seeds collected from plus-trees of Nauclea diderrichii from 4 different provenances within the high forest zones of Ghana, namely: Abofour (KABO), Amantia (KAMA), Benso (KBEN) and Gambia (KGAM).Materials and Methods: A total of104 individual trees of N. diderrichii were identified across the natural distribution range of the species.These were marked as candidate plus-trees based on a set of standardized phenotypic scores during field surveys.Fruits were collected at maturity from 32 plus-trees and seeds extracted for storage and subsequent accelerated ageing tests.The time and temperature regime for the AA tests were 72 h and 41EC, respectively.Seed samples were placed in hermetically sealed bottles and stored at 4-5EC for 12 months.Germination of seeds before and after AA test was undertaken under ambient temperature by sowing 2.0 g of seeds in 4 replicates.Sterilized river sand was used as germination media for each accession.Results: Significant differences (p<0.05) in germination before and after AA test across all 4 provenances were found.Provenance KAMA produced the highest mean germination of 400 seedlings/2.0g of seeds compared with KGAM (248), KABO (276) and KBEN (285) during germination after extraction.However, seed lots from provenances KABO and KAMA showed more vigour than the rest after 12 months of storage followed by AA tests.Conclusion: Although provenance KGAM recorded the highest number of plus-trees, seed lots from provenance KABO, KAMA and KBEN will be more suitable for long-term ex situ conservation as they gave higher vigour seeds after 12 months of storage.
The desiccation tolerance of Garcinia afzelii seeds was determined and sensitive vigour tests for assessing seed deterioration of this species were identified. Matured fruits were harvested in March 2009 from a small plantation at Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana. Depulped seeds were mixed with moistened sawdust and placed in white cotton sacks and quickly transported by air to the Seed Conversation Department of the Royal Botanic Gardens in the United Kingdom where a part of the experiment was carried out. The second season’s seeds was also harvested from the same plantation in April 2010 and used for another part of the studies in Ghana. Seed equilibrium relative humidity and moisture content on receipt in the United Kingdom were 93.3 % and 38.2 % respectively. Seed germination percentage decreased gradually with reduction in seed moisture content until after 25 % moisture content when germination percentage reduced drastically to 43 % at 23 % moisture content. The seeds of Garcinia afzelii are recalcitrant, with ‘critical moisture content’ about 25 %. Seedling dry weight, seed vigour index and speed of germination also decreased as seeds were dried. Electrical conductivity of leachate from seeds increased with desiccation of seeds. Water sorption isotherm curve for the species showed the typical sigmoid shape curve similar to that of orthodox species. Key words: Garcinia afzelii, vigour index, seedling dry weight, electrical conductivity, critical moisture content, moisture sorption isotherm.
Background and Objective: Malaysia needs approximately 200 t of seeds usually for the replanting programme in the rubber plantation.However, its behavior as recalcitrant seed has no dormancy characterization, short life span and the germination rate decreased over time have given a critical challenge to set up suitable storage condition.Improper storage condition affected the rootstock preparation for planting materials in rubber nursery and maintaining the biochemical nature of the seed in storage period is important to maintain seed longevity.Therefore, the study aim to determine the effect of storage temperature on the biochemical properties of Hevea seed and to evaluate the ability of the potential temperature condition to maintain the seed longevity.Materials and Methods: Fresh Hevea seeds were collected from RRIM Mini Station of Tok Dor.Three temperature conditions, i.e. 8, 13 and 27EC were applied as storage conditions.The data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using statistics software Prism 5 and Excel.The level of significance of the differences between mean values was estimated by post-test of Newman-Keuls test.Results: The results showed that the temperature of 27EC was significantly affected the high loss of enzyme activity, high moisture decrease, high lipid and protein contents, high contamination in the seed, high nutrient loss and high ratio saturated to unsaturated fatty acid.Thus, it reflected the low germination rate and seed viability only maintained until 2 weeks of storage.Temperatures of 8 and 13EC can maintain the seed viability until 8 weeks storage but stored at 13EC produced the best results based on the higher germination, lower loss of enzyme activity, lower moisture decrease, low lipid and protein contents, no contamination in the seed, lower nutrient loss and lower ratio saturated to unsaturated fatty acid.Conclusion: The temperature of 13EC was the most suitable for storing the Hevea seeds.
Background and Objectives: Salinity is one of the major problems inhibiting early establishments of seedling.To check the impact of antioxidants on early seedling growth of some bread of wheat cultivars under salinity stress.Current investigation aimed to study the influence of antioxidants seed prim of some bread wheat cultivars to germinate under salinity concentrations on seedling parameters.
Background and Objective: Soybean is an important global commodity.As new soybean cultivars are released on an annual basis, cultivar-specific parameters related to maturity group can quickly became outdated.Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the physiological qualities of sixteen soybean cultivars of three different maturity groups.Materials and Methods: Two experiments (2011-2012 and 2012-2013) were conducted with 16 cultivars of soybeans of different maturity groups in other to evaluate the hypothesis that maturity groups have a role in soybean physiological qualities.Seed germination, accelerated seed aging, cold tolerance, electrical conductivity and tetrazolium tests were performed.Data were summarized and subjected to analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) and Tukey HSD test where differences were found as a mean comparison test.Correlation matrices and multivariate analysis (PCA, HCA and PLS-R) were also applied for dimensionality reduction seeking the most important variables related to seed physiological qualities.Results: Significant statistical differences (p<0.05) were found in all cultivars in germination capacity, aging, cold tolerance, electrical conductivity, seed vigor, seed viability, moisture and stink bug damage.Super early cultivars (SYN 3358, SYN 1163, BMX ENERGIA, EXP 9039) presented good physiological qualities (vigor, viability, cold tolerance and germination capacity).FUNDACEP 66, NIDERA 4766 and EXP 810 RR presented lower qualities.Conclusion: Seed vigor, aging, cold tolerance and viability were the main variables affecting physiological quality independent of maturity group.Higher vigor, seed viability and germination capacity was found in super early cultivars.
Background and Objectives: Digital imaging which had been identified as a fast and reliable method for cultivar discrimination.Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize 15 kenaf accessions using digital imaging.Materials and Methods: Twenty five seeds each of the kenaf accessions were subjected to digital imaging analysis using the WinSEEDLE™ software to distinguish the seed morphometric traits of available kenaf accession and the possibility of using the morphometric data to determine variations between the accessions.Data on seed imaging were subjected to one-way analysis of variance, principal component analysis, Pearsonʼs correlation analysis and the single linkage cluster analysis.Results: Seed area (0.343), straight width (0.327), curved width (0.305), volume circle (0.337), surface area circle (0.340) and shape factor (0.310) contributed highly to the variation among the seeds suggesting their potential usage for cultivar discrimination by digital imaging of kenaf seeds.Conclusion: Variations existed among the seeds, breeders interested in seed improvement of kenaf may consider these seed traits when selecting for seed quality.
Background: Mycorrhizal interactions are ecologically important to understand the orchid biology since orchids depend on mycorrhizal fungi for seed germination.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of fungi isolated from the roots of Vanilla adult plants to induce symbiotic seed germination.Materials and Methods: Fruits from three native species of Vanilla from Colombia were collected to test symbiotic seed germination through experiments in vitro.First, the viability of the seeds was determined through scarification of the seeds using sand-paper and immersion of the embryos in a 1% tetrazolium chloride solution.Second, a surface-sterilized seeds suspension was added to the petri dishes that had an isolated fungus previously obtained from adult plants.Finally, the percentage of seed germination and the index of growth were calculated and the germination stages were morphologically characterized.A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for evaluate differences among species was realized for seed viability variable.For seed germination trails, a factorial design was used and a generalized linear model with a gamma distribution and link function "Log" was performed.Results: With Ceratobasidium strains percentages of germination close to 80% were reached whereas, Tulasnella isolates promoted percentages close to 60%.At Vanilla species level, V. rivasii had the best performance for the variables evaluated.Conclusion: This study presented a new procedure for measuring Vanilla seed viability, as well as, it provided relevant information about seed development.Both Ceratobasidium and Tulasnella isolates can promote germination in Vanilla seeds.However, with the Ceratobasidium strains, higher stages of development were reached.
Background: Studies was carried out to determine whether there is interaction effect between sugarcane varieties and stratified nurseries to the percentage of plantlet viability and its height.Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in Perning and Mojokerto from June-August, 2015.The study method using a completely randomized factorial design consisting of two factors, namely the variety including Bululawang, VMC 76-16, Cokro and clone Columbia-2 while, the second factor is the stratified nurseries including Grandma's Plantlet Nursery (GPN), Motherʼs Plantlet Nursery (MPN) and Flat Plantlet Nursery (FPN).Thus, there were 12 treatment combinations and repeated three times.The bud-chips were planted in the trays with the size 4 cm during 3 months, every month data was collected for percentage of plantlet viability and its height.Data analyzed was done by Minitab 16 for ANOVA and LSD 5%.Results: The results showed that there is not interaction between stratified nursery and variety to the percentage of plantlet viability and plantlet height.Stratified nursery shows that GPN significantly produces percentage of plantlet viability and its height greater at Month After Sowing (MAS) while, MPN gives plantlet higher at the last 3 MAS.Bululawang gives percentage of plantlet viability significantly greater at 1 MAS only while, VMC 76-16 shows the plantlet higher at 1 and 2 MAS.Four varieties planted show the same response at 3 MAS to variables used.That means their responses to percentage of viability and plantlet height are the same.Based on this study, the use of single bud (bud-chip) technique based SOP able to produce percentage viability until 90%.Conclusion: It can be concluded that Columbia-2 is a promising introducing clone.On the other hand, superior bud-chips can be produced from both GPN or MPN and able to be used as the right solution.
Background: Camalina sativa L. (Crantz), a non-edible oilseed crop has been introduced in India as a potential feedstock for biofuel production.In order to avoid resource sharing with food crops, Indian National Biofuel Policy states that biofuel crops are to be cultivated only on marginal degraded lands.Therefore, the present investigation was designed to study salt and osmotic stress tolerance in Camelina.Materials and Methods: In the present investigation, salt (NaCl 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 or 300 mM) or polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000; 5, 10, 15 or 20% w/v) induced osmotic stress tolerance at germination and on seedlings of C. sativa cv.Calena was studied.Results: Seed germination or opening of cotyledonary leaves was not affected by treatment with up to 150 mM NaCl.When treated with 20% PEG, seed germination was not inhibited, however, percent and rate of opening of cotyledonary leaves was reduced.Treatment of seedlings with 150 mM NaCl for 11 days resulted in no differences in growth and relative water content compared to the untreated control seedlings.Treatment with PEG affected growth and relative water content compared to the control.Relative water content was reduced and membrane damage significantly increased in PEG treated seedlings over the control or NaCl treated seedlings.Conclusion: Thus, the results suggest that Camelina cv.Calena is tolerant to salt (NaCl, 150 mM) and may be suitable for cultivation under salt affected areas for biofuel production.
The effects of temperature and seed size on germination of tropical pioneer species have received little attention.This study aims to investigate the effects of temperature and seed size on germination of five common tropical pioneer species in Brunei Darussalam; the native Melastoma malabathricum, Melastoma beccarianum, Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, Dillenia suffruticosa and the invasive Acacia mangium.The species were grouped into small-seeded (seed mass #1 mg) and large-seeded (seed mass >1 mg) species and we determined the germination responses (number of days for seeds to start germination and reach 50% germination), final germination percentages and Relative Growth Rates (RGR) in different temperature using incubator chambers with a 12 h photoperiod.All species were treated with constant temperatures of 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40EC and alternating temperatures of 30/25, 35/25 and 40/25EC.Results demonstrated the possible influence of temperature on the germination of large-seeded A. mangium (13.86±1.17mg) as revealed by its fastest time to germination and 50% germination across all temperature treatments, highest mean cumulative germination percentage (88±2.8%)and fastest RGR at constant temperature of 30EC.The abilities of A. mangium to have faster germination and higher RGR than other native plants are the possible traits that made non-native A. mangium invasive in the secondary and degraded forests of Brunei Darussalam.This study also shows potential effects of various environmental factors on seed germination that might contribute towards establishment and growth of pioneers in a habitat.
Background: The natural or artificial ageing reduces seed germination rate and seedling growth tolerance to adverse conditions.Some pre-germinating treatments, such as seed pelletting and encrusting can improve seed performance during storage and maintain this benefit until the end of this period.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the impact of encrusting seeds before or after a storage period for 9 months on physiological seed quality of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). Materials and Methods:The treatments applied before and after storage were: Tall fescue seeds treated with insecticide, treated with fungicide, treated with water, treated with micro nutrients, treated with dye, encrusted with talc+adhesive polymer or encrusted with insecticide+fungicide+micronutrients+talc+adherent polymer+dye.Response variables were germination and vigor in 2 experiments.Complete randomized block design was applied and data was analyze by ANOVA.The DGC test (p<0.05)was used to separate significant means.Results: Germination of encrusted seeds was significantly higher than control before and after storage.Seed encrusted before storage showed higher germination in comparison to seeds encrusted after storage.Insecticide commercially dosage generated negative effects on germination and vigor but this negative effect was diluted when it was part of the encrusted.Conclusion: It is concluded that a new combination of products that study as seed enhancement was achieved for tall fescue.This encrusting technology improves germination without affecting seedlings vigor of tall fescue whether performed before or after 9 months of storage.It is recommended to encrust seeds before storage (with lower levels of natural deterioration) than encrusting them after storage (with higher levels of natural deterioration) to not affect germination performance.Negative effects of imidacloprid on germination and mean daily germination are not transfer to encrusted seeds.
