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Rapid and Synchronous Germination of Cicer Milkvetch ( Astragalus cicer L.) Seed following Diurnal Temperature Priming
Author(s) -
Stout Darryl G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of agronomy and crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.095
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-037X
pISSN - 0931-2250
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-037x.1998.tb00427.x
Subject(s) - germination , priming (agriculture) , diurnal temperature variation , horticulture , biology , relative humidity , agronomy , humidity , botany , physics , atmospheric sciences , geology , thermodynamics
Experiments were conducted to determine if diurnal temperature variation could be used to prime cicer milkvetch ( Astragalus cicer L.) seed and thereby shorten the time for seed germination. For untreated cicer miikvetch seed at constant 20°C, 50% of the seeds germinated in 8.2 days and 90% of the seeds germinated in 10.5 days. In contrast, seed that was first primed for 7 days with a diurnal temperature variation (35 (8h)/5 (16h) °C) had values of 1.9 days and 3.3 days, respectively. A second experiment evaluated priming of seed in bulk to test if a procedure might be developed that could be scaled up to prime commercial quantities of seed. A bulk sample of seed was soaked in water for 5h at room temperature and then kept in a high humidity atmosphere during 7 days of priming at 35/5°C. Hydrated seed from the bulk sample had 50% germination in 2.7 days and 90% germination in 5.3 days. When the bulk sample was dried for 8 days at room temperature, the benefit of priming on shortening germination time was retained. It is likely that diurnal temperature priming could be adapted to large volumes of seed.