Preliminary Investigations on the Dormancy of Cotton Seeds.

Abstract

Dormancy is a phenomenon common to most seeds and is due to both physical and biological factors. Hard coat of seeds prevents intake of water or the embryos may be immature for proper germination. In cotton seeds, delayed germination has been observed by Simpson (1935) in fresh fuzzy seeds of G. hirsutum, as opposed to the naked seeds of G. barbadense types. Balasubramaniam and Ramaswamy (1933) working on interspecific and inter-racial hybrid seeds of Asiatic cottons, found delayed germination due to hard seed coat, closed micropyle etc. This was overcome by treating the seeds with sulphuric acid. The inhibition studies on cotton seeds by Dubash and Joshi (1959) had shown that actual inhibition for cotton in general is 8 to 12 hours and the time-lag for germination and inhibition ranges from 18.5 to 62 hours.