Seeds: germination viability

Osman MA, Raju PS, Peacock JM (1991) The effect of soil temperature, moisture and nitrogen on Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze seed germination, viability and emergence on sorghum (,Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) roots under field conditions. Plant Soil 131 265-273. doi 10.1007/BF00009458... 

Arora A, Yaduraju NT (1998) High-temperature effects on germination and viability of weed seeds in soil. J Agron Crop Sci 181 35—43... 

Peinetti, R., Pereyra, M., Kin, A., and Sosa, A. (1993). Effects of cattle ingestion on viability and germination rate of calden (Prosopiscaldenia) seeds.JournalofRangeManagement 46, 483-486. 

Soak seed in compost tea for 25 minutes before planting to help prevent disease and speed germination. Treat seed with an inocu-lant labeled for the type of bean you are planting before sowing to promote nitrogen fixation. Be sure to buy fresh inoculant each year, or check the date on the package for viability. 

If you start your own plants, soak the seed in 122°F water for 25 minutes before planting to eliminate seed-borne diseases. (Be aware that this treatment can damage seed viability for complete instructions, see page 422.) Once your seeds have germinated, grow seedlings at f 0°F to keep them short and stocky. 

Koyro, H. and Eisa, S. (2007). Effect of salinity on composition, viability and germination of seeds of Chenopodium quinoa Willd. Plant Soil 302, 79-90. 

Use In germination and viability tests. Viable parts of seed are stained red by deposition of red insoluble triphenyl formazan. 

Because of the lengthy periods of viability of the seeds of Stri ga and Orobanche (broomrape) in the soil, effective control of these parasitic weeds is extremely difficult. An attractive method of control would involve treatment of an infected field with a biosynthetic product (such as strigol) or synthetic analog to induce suicidal germination of the weed seed in the absence of a host plant. The results of field tests with ethylene (11) and synthetic strigol analogs (12) offer evidence of the utility of this method of control. 

In the course of basic studies in the germination metabolites of Peganum harmala seeds, it was discovered that the alkaloidal constituents are located in the husk and the kernel yields 20% of oil comparable in its constants and constituents to those of cotton seed oil [9]. However, the economic viability of harmal seeds as a new source of edible oil would largely depend on the utilization of alkaloids from the husk which constitutes 50% of the whole seed and contain ca. 7% of the alkaloidal bases. In view of this fact, intensive studies have been undertaken on the chemistry of the two main alkaloids of harmala, namely harmine, harmidine, and their derivatives, and a whole series of new potentially pharmacophoric derivatives of these bases have been prepared [10]. 

Seeds of many terrestrial species which fail to germinate below water quickly lose their viability when maintained under these conditions. Quite the opposite is the case with wild rice Zizania aquatica) however. Here, air drying of the grains for 90 days causes loss of viability, whereas after-ripening at low temperatures in stagnant water actually accelerates their subsequent rate of germination [116]. This represents an adaptation to habitat, for the grains of this particular wild rice... 

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