Seed Vigor and the Uniformity of Emergence of Corn Seedlings

Abstract

Seed vigor is defined as those "seed properties that determine the potential for rapid, uniform emergence and development of seedlings under a wide range of field conditions." Seedlings from high-vigor seed lots are expected to emerge more uniformly than those from low-vigor lots. We tested this hypothesis in a series of greenhouse and growth chamber experiments with several high-and low-vigor corn (Zea mays L.) samples that had high standard germination. Seed-vigor levels were estimated with the saturated cold test where the seeds were stressed with low temperature (10°C) and field soil for 7 d and then germination was measured after 5 d at 25°C. The uniformity index (Ul) (time from 10 to 90% of final emergence) was estimated by planting seeds 3.8 cm deep In soil and counting emergence every 6 h in greenhouse and growth chamber experiments. Lowering the soil temperature from roughly 23 to 15°C increased the time to 10% of final emergence ij^^ from about 100 to more than 300 h and increased the Ul. Low-vigor seed always had a larger Ul than high-vigor seed, but the difference was less when the seedlings emerged rapidly (Uls were 20 to 30 h) than when they emerged slowly (maximum of -80 h for high-vigor seed and 140 h for low-vigor seed). High-vigor seed had more uniform emergence, but soil temperature and the time to emergence also influenced uniformity.

Vigor Tests Association as an Alternative for Precise and Efficient Assessment of Maize Seed Quality

“…The results also pointed to similarity among seed lots for seedling emergence, which was expected, considering the stable conditions of temperature and moisture used for this test. According to Egli and Rucker (2012), seed lots with the same standard germination but a range in vigor levels will often produce equal emergence in ideal field conditions, but the high vigor lots will have an advantage when conditions are less than ideal. Considering this statement, the cold test, seedling emergence speed index and accelerated aging test, which are considered well standardized assessments, segregated lots1 and 2 as high vigor, lot 3 as intermediate vigor and lots 4 and 5 as low vigor for hybrid 2A120.…”

A Self-developed System for Visual Detection of Vegetable Seed Vigor Index

“…Currently, studies mainly focused on vigor assessment of crop grain and plant seed using machine vision technology (Hoffmaster et al, 2003;Ma et al, 2010;Deng et al, 2012;Egli and Rucker, 2012), only a few researchers paid attention to vigor detection of vegetable seed, owing to the seed type of bigger size was easy to be detected based on regular image, such as the seeds of lettuce and cucumber (McDonald et al, 2001;Hoffmaster et al, 2003). In this study, a detection system of seed vigor index was developed, to explore new method for improving breeding effective of vegetable seed by image processing technology.…”

“…Cucumber, chilli, tomato, and aubergine seeds were soaked for 3 h at a 30°С temperature (Egli and Rucker, 2012;Li et al, 2012) and sprouted after about 35 h. Then the seeds were put on culture dishes with black flannelette (10 cm  10 cm) at an angle of 85° from the horizontal. To enhance the hygroscopicity, two pieces of white filter paper were placed under the black flannelette, and supplemental water was added in a timely fashion during seed germination.…”

The effects of NACL, KCL and MGCL2 on the germination of Brassica rapa var. parachinensis seed

“…Germination percentage, salt tolerance and seed vigor were determined by the following formula: a) Germination Percentage (GP %) was calculated using a formula by (Kandil et al, 2012): GP = Number of germinated seeds × 100 Total number of seed sown b) the salt tolerance rate was calculated with using standard formula according to Kaymakanova (2009 Seed vigor is the seed properties that determine the potential for rapid, uniform emergence and development of seedlings under a wide range of field conditions. Seedlings from high vigor seed are expected to emerge more uniformly than those from low vigor (Egli and Rucker, 2012). Vigor index represents the germination capacity and growing tendency of seedling (Deng et al, 2014).…”