“…The uptake of water by barley seeds is an essential and initial step towards germination [1,3,4,7,9]. This step is of importance not only for the direct effect on crop germination but also from a technological point of view (e.g., in the malting process it is often referred to as steeping) [4,7,9] Abbreviations: ATR, attenuated total reflectance; MIR, mid infrared; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; NIR, near infrared; PC, principal component; PCA, principal component analysis; PLS, partial least squares; PRESS, prediction residual error sum of squares; R 2 , coefficient of determination in cross validation; RPD, residual predictive deviation; RWU, rate of water uptake; SD, standard deviation; SECV, standard error of cross validation.…”