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Wheat Information
Service
Number 75: 68-71 (1992)
Variability
for seed ageing and storability in wheat
B. S. Chhabra, T. P. Yadava and R.K. Behl
Department of Plant Breeding, Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004, India
Introduction
The pace as well as process of ageing in stored seeds largely
depends on chemical composition of seeds (Mayer and PoIjokoff-Mayber
1982), storage temperature, humidity and gaseous exchange (Roos and
Manalo 1970). Ageing causes stress on seeds which leads to impaired
germination and loss of seedling vigour (Purkar et al 1980).
Genotypic variation for seed ageing among wheat genotypes exist
(Madan et al 1989). Screening of wheat genotypes for seed ageing
under real storage and artificially accelerated ageing conditions
would provide guide lines to ensure appropriate storage of germplasm,
specific genotypes and commercial seed lots. An experiment was,
therefore, conducted to know the effect of various storage conditions
on genetically diverse wheat lines.
Materials and methods
Six diverse cultivars, ie, HD 2009, S 308, WH 147, WH 416, WH 283
and C 306 were stored in gunny bags (G), fertilizer bags (F) and
polyethylene bags (P, 700 g) kept under ambient conditions for three
years (Table
1). The average
temperature and relative humidity under ambient storage condition
varied from season to season and also within a day (morningevening
hours). The moisture content (%)
of all the varieties
at the harvest and the beginning of storage experiment was ranging
from 14-15 percent and 8.50-8.75 per cent, respectively. Seed samples
from each bag were drawn at 3 months interval. One hundred seeds
replicated four times were germinated using rolled paper towel and
kept in controlled temperature conditions at 20 + or - 2oC
and relative humidity 100 per cent (approx.). The per cent
germination was recorded after 7 days as per ISTA rules (Anonymous
1985).
Simultaneously, to monitor the effects of artificial stress caused by
abiotic factors, seeds of all the six varieties were exposed to
accelerated ageing (AA) for 72 hours at 40 +
or - 2oC
and 100 per cent relative humidity (approx.) at the beginning of
storage experiment. Germination tests in this experiment were also
performed as mentioned above. The data were subjected to analysis of
variance and treatment means were compared. Angular transformation
was used to make the data linear.
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