Guinea grass seed storage

Abstract

This work was developed at the Seed Technology Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture in the Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz" (Piracicaba, SP, Brazil), to study the influence of storage environment on the physical and physiological qualities of two lots of guinea grass seeds (Panicum maximum Jacq.) with distinct characteristics. Four storage environment were studied: a) seeds warehouse; b) cold chamber; cl dry chamber and d) brick shed. Moisture content, hectoliter weight, thousand seed weight, germination, first counting, speed of germination and rapid aging were evaluated periodically. Our studies suggested that: for a good conservation of the guinea grass seeds it is necessary to know the initial quality of the seeds and the storage environment conditions; lower quality seeds (4% pure live seeds) presented good conservation in the dry chamber and a reasonable behavior in the open environment; higher quality seeds (13% pure live seeds) stored better in the dry and cold chamber; and an environment with high temperatures and high relative humidities, was revealed to be harmful, regardless the initial quality of the studied seed lots.