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VIGOR TESTS USED TO RANK SEED LOT QUALITY AND PREDICT FIELD EMERGENCE IN WHEAT

AMIR ZAMAN KHAN¹, P. SHAH¹, F. MOHD ¹, H. KHAN¹, AMANULLAH, S. PERVEEN¹, S. NIGAR², S. K. KHALIL¹ AND M. ZUBAIR¹

Abstract: The objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between various seed quality tests and field emergence of the new and old wheat cultivars. Laboratory and field tests were conducted during 2003 and 2004 in NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan, to investigate the suitability of various laboratory vigor tests, to rank quality of commercial seed lots, and to predict seedling field emergence (FE) of 32 samples of 4 wheat varieties. Seeds of four wheat cultivars Takbeer 2000, Haider 2000, Bakhtawar-92 and Fakhri Sarhad were produced in 8 different location of NWFP, Pakistan during 2003 and 2004. Mature seeds were harvested, threshed and cleaned before determining standard germination and other vigor tests. Results showed that among all tests, germination index (GI), Accelerated aging (AA) and Electrical conductivity (EC) provided the best estimate of seed vigor for the four wheat cultivars, both for ranking seed lots quality and predicting field emergence. The GI, AA and EC tests better indicated seed lot quality and predicted FE than SG of the four cultivars over the 2-years followed by Radical length (RL). The electrical conductivity (EC) result was not only poorly related to FE, but also poorly related to the standard germination (SG) of a wide range of seed lots of the four varieties that varied in viability. Initial count of standard germination (SGi) generally performed more poorly than the other vigor tests. From this study and previous work on wheat crop, we conclude that GI, AA and EC test for wheat crop have the potential to be developed as improved vigor tests for ranking seed lot quality and predicting seeding performance under temperate regions of the world.

¹Faculty of Crop Production Sciences,

²Institute of Development Studies, NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan