Screening 800 F² Wheat Plants for Sedimentation Value in Eight Hours¹

Abstract

A rapid microsedimentation test is proposed that enables wheat breeders to evaluate very small wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) flour samples of 0.16 g simply, rapidly, and accurately. In eight hours 400 duplicate or 800 individual F2 plant samples were tested by a team of four while a further increase to 600 duplicate samples may be possible. Pickney's modification of the original test procedure was reduced to micro scale. Changes were also made in milling procedure and reagent ratio. Twentyfour samples were analyzed simultaneously. A high positive correlation exists between result of this test and those of Pickney's modification.