The Impact of Temperature and Humidity on Germination Energy and Length of Embryonic Roots at Sweet Corn

Abstract

SUMMARY Actual climatic conditions affect agricultural harvests reason for farmers have to be direct to those crops which are most adapted at conditions of low humidity and high temperatures. Sweet corn presented in the last period a growing interest both thanks to its chemical composition as well as nutritive value and to the various possibilities for utilization in the alimentary industry. Besides these features sweet corn became interesting as well for its drought resistance in the first vegetation stages (Bors, 2011). The evolution of crop depends by the evolution of specie during germination process, reasons for it was considered as necessary to study the germination energy and the length of embryonic roots. Seeds were put to germinate both in standard conditions (AOSA and ISTA rules, V1 – 16 hours at 20°C and 8 hours at 30°C during 7 days – as control) and in less favorable conditions, similar with some conditions which can occur in field immediately after sowing: V2 – damping in water for 24 h at 25°C followed by 7 days at 25°C; V3 – 7 days at 25°C; V4 – damping in water for 24 h at 25°C followed by thermal shock (2 h at 50°C) and germination during 7 days at 25°C. Among the tested variants the highest germination energy (362.1%), very significant in comparison with control (standard conditions), was recorded by the variants V3 with seeds put to germinate in constant conditions of temperature (25˚C) and humidity. The germination energy was distinctly significant higher in comparison with control in case of variants V4 (241.4%) and V2 (244.8%) which for the seeds were preliminary damped in water for 24 hours. The lenght of embryonic roots was higher for all variants: V2 (6.43 cm), V3 (6.58 cm) and V4 (7.50 cm) in comparison with control V1 (6.10 cm). The result of statistical analysis indicated a distinct significant increase of lenght of embryonic roots in comparison with control just in variant V4 (1.4 cm), which for the seeds were damped with water for 24 h and then exposed at a thermal shock (50°C) for 2 h. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that sweet corn has good odds to resist at a short period of drought imediately after sowing if the sowing is done in conditions of good humidity of soil.