Influence of seed maturity on early seedling vigor in wheat

Abstract

The influence of seed maturity on seedling dry matter, efficiency of seed weight and variability of seedling dry matter in wheat were investigated. The experiment was performed in semi-controlled conditions in greenhouse. The seeds from four maturity stages (milk, early dough, full dough and full physiological maturity) were grown at micro-trial experiment in pots with quartz sand at four replications. Dry matter of seedlings from milk maturity seed ranged from 12.08 mg/ plant (Slavonija) to 18.52 mg/plant (KG-56). Results of seedlings dry matter from seed early dough maturity (26.86 mg/plant) and full dough maturity (27.62 mg/plant) had shown considerable higher values than seedlings from seed milk maturity (15.83 mg/plant). In average the highest value of shoot dry matter had shown seedlings from full dough stage (23.24 mg/plant), which was the same as averaged value for all cultivars and maturity stages (23.38 mg/plant). The highest root dry matter, in average, was found in seedlings from full dough maturity (24.93 mg/plant), and the lowest in seedlings from milk maturity (15.01 mg/plant). The efficiency of seed weight (seedling weight/seed weight) differed in dependence of cultivar and seed maturity, and ranged from 1.19 (Srbijanka) to 1.56 (Zagrepčanka). In average the highest efficiency of seed weight established in milky stage (1.61), and decreased to full physiological stage (1.14). The analysis of variance was shown that differences of dry matter content of seedlings were highly significant for cultivar, maturity stage and interaction cultivar x maturity stage. The highest impact in total variance for dry matter content of seedlings had variance for the maturity stage (58.05 %), than variance for the cultivar (11.45 %), and the lowest variance for interaction (9.45 %). Variance for both maturity stage and cultivar was higher for seedling shoot (65.27 %, 16.05 %, respectively) than for seedling root (46.10 %, 9.89 %, respectively).