Effect of Seed Moisture, Vigour Levels and Packaging Materials on Storability of Sorghum, Greengram and Sunflower
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Date
2017-07
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University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad
Abstract
A study was undertaken to elucidate the effects of different moisture, vigour levels and packaging materials on storability of sorghum, greengram and sunflower crop seeds at the Seed Quality and Research Laboratory, National Seed Project (crops), University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during 2016-2017. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 13 treatments replicated thrice.
The zeolite beads were found to be useful to reduce the seed moisture to lower level and further maintenance during the storage, thus resulting in better storability of seeds. The low moisture content (5 %) has affected the seed germination and vigour in sorghum and greengram because of low temperature injury and in case of sunflower, the seeds dried to 5 per cent showed high value for seed germination and other quality parameters. Among the various biochemical parameters studied, the protein content (5.79-5.59 %) in greengram, sugar (68.37-66.74 %) in sorghum and oil content (39.43-37.10 %) in sunflower were found to decrease, as the storage period progressed while the electrical conductivity and reducing sugar content increased with increase in storage period. Whereas the total dehydrogenase (TDH) and peroxidase activity decreased with increase in storage period. The rate of reduction in seed quality was lower with lower vigour seeds compared to high vigour seeds. A significantly better improvement in the seed quality was maintained in low vigour seeds though high vigour seeds maintained higher seed germination and other seed quality parameters throughout the storage period. High vigour seeds at 7 per cent moisture level in sorghum and greengram and at 5 per cent in sunflower seeds stored in aluminum pouch recorded better germination and other seed quality parameters over low vigour seeds with other moisture level and packaging material at the end of storage period.