The electrical conductivity test to assess physiological quality of white oat seeds

Abstract

The measurement of electrical conductivity (EC) is a quick and easy test to evaluate seed vigor. However, for seeds of white oat still lacking such information on effectiveness and time of imbibition for EC test. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of soaking time on the values of electrical conductivity and verify the efficiency in comparison with other vigor tests applied on white oat seeds. The experiment was conducted using eight seed lots white oat cultivar URS Guria, spliced into four lots from plants treated with fungicide and four lots from without fungicide application on plant shoot during the crop cycle. The EC test was conducted at 20 °C for 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 36 and 48 hours immersion of 2g seeds in 50 mL of distilled water. Were also conducted test’s germination, first count of germination, sand emergence, speed of emergence index, seedling length, potassium leakage and accelerated aging. Were adopted a completely randomized design with four replications. The results pointed to seed imbibed for two hours are sufficient to possibilities to splice lots differing on its physiological quality of seed for white oat, cv. Guria, based on the EC test. The seed lots from plants treated with fungicide showed highest physiological quality than seeds from plants not treated with fungicide. The electrical conductivity test correlated significantly (P <0.05), but negatively with vigor tests: first count of germination, sand emergence and speed of emergence index and also a negative correlation, but weak (P <0.10) with tests: germination, accelerated aging, seedling length and potassium efflux. It is found that the electrical conductivity is an efficient and suitable test for evaluating the physiological quality of white oat seeds.