Seed longevity of two nutrient-dense vegetables (Amaranthus spp.)

For many traditional vegetables, seed longevity is unknown, limiting proper seed bank management. In this study, the comparative seed longevity of two nutrient-dense leafy vegetables, blood amaranth ( Amaranthus cruentus ) and edible amaranth ( A. tricolor ), was compared together with two reference crops, crookneck squash ( Cucurbita moschata ) and soya bean ( Glycine max ). Seed lots of four genebank accessions of the corresponding vegetable species were treated under accelerated ageing (AA) conditions with an average of 41.1°C and an average of 89.9% relative humidity for 33 days to generate single seed survival curves and calculate the time taken for seed viability to fall to 50% ( p 50 ). The seed survival curves of all four species had values of goodness to fit ( R 2 ) values between 0.43 and 0.85. Seeds of the A. cruentus and A. tricolor accessions had high p 50 values of 19.5 and 32.8 days, respectively, compared with the C. moschata and G. max accessions, which returned p 50 values of 8.2 and 4.9, respectively. This means that these leafy amaranths have a long seed longevity compared with other vegetable crops. This suggests that properly dried seeds of amaranth crops can be stored for long periods of time at 5°C in aluminium foils.