Effect of Imbibed Seeds Treatment on Germination and Growth in Tartary Buckwheat (<I>Fagopyrum tataricum</I> Gaertn.)

Abstract

Sprouts are expected to be a promising crop for closed plant factories that use artificial light, because of the fact that sprouts can be grown using only freshwater and lowlight conditions. Therefore, we focused on Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.), which has high nutritive value and is currently uncultivated as a sprout for industrial or commercial purposes. This study aimed to understand the effects of imbibition time and water temperature on germination and growth of Tartary buckwheat sprouts. The effects of imbibition time and water temperature on seed germination were evaluated by measuring variations in the coefficients of uniformity, days of germination, and germination rate. The study utilized two imbibing conditions. First, the seeds were imbibed in tap water and maintained at 25 ℃ for various durations (1,3,6,8,12, and 24 hr), leaving some seeds untreated as a control (0 hr). Secondly, the seeds were imbibed in water of various temperatures (4, 16, 20, 25, and 30 ℃) for 3 hr, leaving some seeds were not imbibed in water as a control and to measure the coefficients of uniformity, days of germination, and germination rate. As a result, the coefficients of uniformity and days of germination of the seeds were improved by the imbibing treatment consisting of a water temperature of 25 ℃ for 3 hr compared to the control. Furthermore, hypocotyl length and fresh weight of the sprouts tended to increase when an imbibing treatment was used in comparison to the control. On the other hand, the germination rate and dry weight of the imbibed seeds were not significantly different from those of the control seeds. Thus, our results suggest that imbibing of seeds could be effective for promoting germination and growth in Tartary buckwheat sprouts.