EFFECT OF SEED STORAGE CONDITIONS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF BARLEY BROAD BEANS AND PEAS

The effect of various combinations of time, temperature, and moisture content during seed storage have been investigated in relation to their effect on the growth and yields of surviving seeds. In the species investigated here, percentage seed viability is an excellent indicator of the growth potential of the surviving seeds, irrespective of the particular combination of factors which led to the loss of seed viability or the rate at which viability was lost. Seed deterioration associated with loss of viability during storage results in decreased early growth of roots and shoots and in increased variability of growth between plants. This early inhibition of growth-rate does not persist and there is some evidence that, under normal agricultural conditions, initial low rates of growth may be compensated at later stages of development. Thus in the present investigations it was found that, providing the initial seed viability was not less than about 50 per cent, final yields were not significantly affected. But if the seed deterioration during storage was sufficient to reduce viability below about 50 per cent, the final yields of crops produced from surviving seeds were significantly decreased.A possible relationship between growth and the nuclear damage sustained during storage is outlined, and the practical implications of the results of this and previous papers in the series are discussed. In the species investigated here, considerable loss of seed viability can be tolerated in seed used for food-crop production but not in maintenance stocks used for seed production. In either case, details of the storage history of the seed is unnecessary: it is sufficient to know only the percentage viability as determined by a simple germination test. © 1969 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.