Initial growth and chlorophyll indices of maize plants originating from seeds of different shapes and sizes

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the initial growth and chlorophyll content of maize plants originated from seeds with different sizes and shapes, as well as to establish the relationship between growth traits, chlorophyll index and seed formats. The experimental design was a randomized complete blocks, and the treatments were composed by seeds of four sizes and shapes for each of the two genotype used, and four collection periods (21, 24, 27 and 30 DAE) and four replications. The root and shoot length, stem diameter, leaf area, dry mass of leaf, stem, roots and total, leaf mass ratio, leaf area ratio, specific leaf area and chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll were determined. It was verified that seedlings of genotype "A" originated from large round seeds, presented the highest stem diameter, leaf dry mass, stem dry mass, root dry mass and total dry mass. There is a distinct response in the growth of maize plants as a function of the genotype. Regardless of the genotype, the size and shape of seeds do not influence the indexes of chlorophyll a, b and total. There is a positive and strong correlation between seeds of different sizes and shapes with leaf area, leaf dry mass and specific leaf area.