THE EFFECTS OF WATER PRESOAKING TREATMENT ON BEAN SEEDS PRIOR TO SOWING ON GERMINATION AND SEED VIGOR GATIMU CAROLINE W. A22/1787/2010 BSc AGRIC: CROP PROTECTION OPTION SUPERVISOR: PROF. KIARIE NJOROGE
INTRODUCTION Bean is a major legume in Eastern and in South Africa. It source of protein and dietary energy. It also provides vitamin B complex and minerals, Fe, Cu,Zn in human diet. Problem statement. Many farmers tend to soak their seeds before sowing, but they barely know the dangers this has to germination ability of seeds. To solve this problem farmers should be aware of the period seeds should remain soaked for optimal germination
Justification This is a farming technique that is used by farmers in the arid & semi arid areas. These regions have little moisture, therefore farmers carry out presoaking in order to fasten the seed sprouting. The rainfall distribution is erratic in nature. Seeds should therefore have the ability to maximize the amount of moisture captured
Objectives General objective To explore if any disadvantages occur associated with presoaking treatment of bean seeds prior to sowing. Specific objectives To find out the effect of prolonged soaking on germination of bean seeds. To determine the vigor of germinating seed presoaked at different periods. Hypothesis: Presoaking of seeds prior to germination has no effect on germination.
Materials and methods The experiment was done at CAVS Botany laboratory of the crop science department during the period of February to march of 2014. A cultivar of bean GLP-2, ROSE COCO was used in this experiment in three different treatments. Seeds were submerged in 100ml water in plastic beakers with 100seeds each for zero,4,8,12, and 16 hrs. To prevent the seeds from bacterial and fungicide proliferation. Isacap copper based solution was added to the submersion solution.
Continue. After submersion, we evaluated the seeds by the following tests Moisture content this was to evaluate the moisture gain during the treatment Germination we sowed the seeds in a germination paper roll and wetted with 2.5 percent its dry weight and allowed them to germinate.there was daily observation of the experiment Germination percentage was determined after eight days from sowing Lengths of hypocotyls and roots was measured in a line of ten seeds per treatment.
Time hrs Results and discussions Moisture content Germinatio n % Table 1: Root length cm Hypocotyl Length cm 0 9.50 98.33 10.833 5.367 2.08 4 47.63 71.67 2.900 1.600 1.783 8 56.10 69.33 1.33 0.767 1.866 12 55.77 40.67 0.733 0.733 0.614 Root to hypo ratio % 16 54.83 37.33 0.433 0.633 0.5739 Mean 44.77 63.47 3.247 1.820 1.1699 L.S.D 3.287 6.361 0.5689 0.3844 0.9573 C.V% 3.8 17.8 17.8 21.6 0.2727
Moisture absorbed Seeds absorbed water up to a maximum, and the variety maximum used was 8hrs. The rise was from 9.5 of untreated seeds to 56.10 after submersion. After the 8 th hour the seeds could not take any more water. In reference to graph 1
moisture content (gm) Graph 1 60 moisture content 50 40 30 moisture content 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 TIME (Hrs
Germination Germination results for this cultivar showed a reduction in that parameter when seeds were submitted to more than four hrs of submersion. The longer they were exposed to water they suffered from water injury. The germination percentage was dropping consistently.
GERMINATION % G e r m i n a t i o n % 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 Time(hrs) GERMINATION % LSD(P<0.05) 6.361 Cv 17.86
Root and hypocotyls lengths The untreated seeds had a vigorous growth unlike those of the treated seeds. The lengths reduced in respect to the extent of submersion. This also indicates that roots grow more quickly than hypocotyls
12 10 L e n g t h ( c m ) 8 6 4 ROOT LENGTH (CM) HYPOCOTYL LENGTH (CM) 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 Time (hrs)
Root and hypocotyls ratio 2.5 R/H 2 1.5 length in (cm) 1 R/H 0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 time in hrs
Conclusions The vigor and germination of seeds were negatively affected by submersion in water. Seeds that remained for a longer period in water after drying them and germination was adversely affected. Four hours of submersion may damage without the reversion the crop establishment for seeds. Eight hours was enough to decrease germination. This describes that in dry areas the time period the seeds remain in water affect their vigor. The control treatment showed vigorous growth in their roots and hypocotyls