Seeds quality of the domestic millet (Panicum virgatum L.) depending on the scarification mode

Abstract

The aim of the research is determination of millet seed scarification efficiency depending on the modes – the amount of seeds surface removal. Scarification implies mechanical damage to the solid seed coat surface and its partial removal is applied to increase the intensity of seed germination. Studies oo implying this method on the millet seeds of the rod-shaped millet have shown that the seeds germination energy and sprouting significantly increase. On average for 15 experiments, these indicators increased by 7 % compared to the control – without scarification. A comprehensive study of the effect of scarification and vegetation years on germination energy and seed germination revealed that both the vegetation years and scarification influence these parameters. The share of factors influence on the seeds germination showed that the "vegetation year" factor was the dominant and made 70.9 %, the impact of scarification factor made only 6.9 %. The seeds quality in both control and scarification variants varied significantly depending on the vegetation years of the millet. The highest germination energy and sprouting were in the seeds of the seventh year, the lowest – the fourth year of the crop vegetation. To investigate the impact of scarification on the seeds quality, a series of one-factor experiments were conducted in which the seeds of one batch were used. It is found that scarification with removing 2.8–8.8 % of the seed coat, provided a significant increase in seed germination compared to the control (without scarification). Removal of 8.8 % of the seed coat surface provided 9 % increase in germination energy and 6 % in sprouting increase; removal of 2.8 % of the surface provided germination energy increased by 11 % and sprouting increase by 8 %. The impact of the scarification factor on the germination energy and sprouting was significant and amounted to 50.0 and 84.0 %, respectively. The application of scarification of the millet seed provides a reliable increase in its germination energy and sprouting, but this method does not solve the problem of reducing the seeds biological dormancy, so it is advisable to continue the study on the nature of the seed dormancy in order to clarify tme possibility of managing this phenomenon and improve the technology of obtaining sufficient amount of high germination seeds. Key words: sprouting, germination energy, scarification, seed coat, seed mass.