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Relationships between indices of seed maturity and carrot seed quality
Author(s) -
STECKEL JOYCE R. A.,
GRAY D.,
ROWSE H. R.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1989.tb06798.x
Subject(s) - biology , germination , cultivar , horticulture , dry weight , zoology , test weight , coefficient of variation , botany , agronomy , mathematics , statistics
Summary Carrot seeds cvs Chantenay and Amsterdam were harvested on several occasions from crops grown in 1985 and 1986, from the time they had reached or were close to their maximum dry weight and were starting to turn brown. Maximum seed dry weight occurred approximately 40–45 days after flowering (DAF) in both cultivars. Maximum germination (International Seed Testing Association 14‐day count) occurred 40 and 55 DAF in cvs Chantenay and Amsterdam, respectively, but the maximum 7‐day count and the minimum coefficient of variation of embryo length did not occur until 60 DAF in cv. Chantenay and 55 to 65 DAF in cv. Amsterdam. Percentage germination was negatively and linearly related to seed moisture content, chlorophyll a + b content in the seed coat and seed distortion, measured on a modified tensile‐testing machine, the relationships accounting for 77, 71 and 64% of the variance in the 7‐day germination count, respectively. The corresponding values for the 14‐day count were 63, 61 and 50%. A simple field test for monitoring seed maturity is proposed.