Assessment of quality and viability of primed maize seed

Abstract

Good crop establishment is essential for achieving high yield and constraints to good establishment include untimely sowing and low seed quality combined with various adverse growing conditions after sowing. Seed priming is a pre-sowing technique used for the improvement of germination, reduction of the time from sowing to emergence and improvement of emergence uniformity. Various seed priming techniques, such as hydropriming and priming with zinc, are used nowadays to improve crop establishment. The importance of seed priming with zinc for better germination, improved stand establishment, and higher maize yield are well documented. However, there is still a lack of results on the effects of seed priming with water and zinc on seed quality and viability, given that maize seed can be kept in storage for many years without a significant reduction in germination. The study was aimed to evaluate the effects of seed priming with water and Zn on the quality and viability of the maize seed. In order to evaluate the response of four maize hybrids to priming with water (hydropriming) and 4 mM zinc sulphate, primed seeds were subjected to laboratory tests, namely to the germination test, the cold test, and the accelerated aging test. Both priming treatments increased the seed quality, but the beneficial effect of Zn-priming maintained to a larger extent than hydropriming in cold-treated and aged seeds. The negative effects of hydropriming on the viability o f the aged seed of hybrid NS 4023 imply a possible limitation to deferred sowing of primed maize seed.

U današnje vreme, različite tehnike prajminga semena, kao što su hidroprajming i prajming semena cinkom, koriste se u cilju poboljšanja useva. Značaj tehnika prajminga u postizanju bolje klijavosti semena, poboljšanju useva i postizanju visokog prinosa kukuruza dobro je dokumentovana. Međutim, još uvek nedostaju rezultati o uticaju prajminga semena vodom i cinkom na kvalitet i životnu sposobnost semena, s obzirom da se seme kukuruza može čuvati u skladištu duži niz godina bez značajnog smanjenja klijavosti. Ovo istraživanje je sprovedeno sa ciljem da se ispita uticaj prajminga semena vodom i cinkom na kvalitet i životnu sposobnost semena kukuruza. Za procenu odgovora četiri hibrida kukuruza na prajming semena vodom i 4mM rastvorom cink-sulfata, seme je nakon prajminga podvrgnuto laboratorijskim testovima, testu klijavosti, hladnom testu i testu ubrzanog starenja. Oba tretmana prajminga semena su uticala na povećanje kvaliteta semena kukuruza, ali blagotvorni efekat prajminga semena cinkom se ispoljio u većem stepenu od hidroprajminga u stresnim uslovima hladnog testa i testa ubrzanog starenja. Negativni efekti hidroprajminga na životnu sposobnost semena hibrida NS 4023 ukazuju na moguće ograničenje za odloženu setvu semena kukuruza nakon prajminga.