Seed Testing and Quality-Assurance
H igh-quality seed is the basis for profitable and productive agriculture, be it a large commercial field operation, a small familyowned farm, or a greenhouse-based operation producing bedding plants or specialty horticultural crops. Assessing seed quality and assuring the buyer of the validity of the seed label (Fig. 1) has been an important mission of the various seed regulatory agencies of state and federal governments and service-testing provided by commercial seed-testing laboratories around the world. Based on validity of labeling, commercial sales of seed have been a profitable business to both the seed producer and the consumer. In the United States and Canada, seed-testing rules have been developed and standardized by the Assn. of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA) and in other countries around the world by the Inter-
Accelerated Aging Techniques for Predicting the Relative Storability of Seed Lots
CHARLES C. BASKIN Extension Agronomist, Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service, Mississippi State University, State College, U.S.A. BS, MS, AuburnUniversity, Auburn. Alabama; PhD, Mississippi State University, State College. Seed company management must make many technical decisions in the course of business operations. One of the important decisions that must be made each season involves the determination of which seed lots among those held in inventory should be marketed first and which can be safely held for carry-over in the event of a weak market or to insure an adequate seed supply the following year. 1 Journal Paper No. 2133 of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State University, State College, Mississippi. The major portion of the research on which this report is based was supported under Cooperative Agreement No. 12-14-100-9010 (51) between the MAFES and MQRD, ARS, USDA (1966-70). Substantial support during the early stages of the work was provided by a grant from the American Seed Research Foundation (1964-1966). The Southern Seedsmen's Association granted funds during the period 1966-1970 for closely related research. 2 Agronomist, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, and Extension Agronomist, Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service, respectively.
A Method of Measuring and Expressing Epigeous Seedling Growth Rate
THE developing seedling primarily depends on endogenous resources from initial water uptake by the seed until seedling emergence from the soil surface. The rate of early seedling growth is an expression of genetic factors for vigor and other predisposing influences provided by the parent plant, and the reaction of this biotype to external influences such as variation of temperature, soil aeration, or applied chemicals. The rate of emergence from sand or soil, germination rate, elongation of the seedling, and dry weight have been used to express seedling performance. The assay and expression of seedling development are of[en complicated by extreme variability of these commonly measured seedling attributes. Christidis (2) showed that the rate of cottonseed germination varies considerably with slight differences in germination media, temperature, or seed hydration. Toole and Drummond (4) likewise reported considerable fluctuation in cottonseed germination when germination media was varied. Arndt (1) successfully used root-hypocotyl elongation as a criterion of temperature influence on seedling growth. Acid-delinted, surface-sterilized cottonseed of uniform weight were germinated in sterile agar in his studies.