Seed Size And Physiological Quality Of Three Cultivars Of Cotton

Abstract

Cotton is one of the most important crops, both in the national context and worldwide. Being that, its fiber, constitutes an important raw material for the textile industry. The process of improving cottonseeds, favoured cultivars with smaller seeds. The goal of this work was to evaluate three cultivars of cottonseeds with different sizes through vigour tests. The work was developed in the seeds laboratory and the post-harvest Laboratory of plant products of the Instituto Federal Goiano – Campus Rio Verde. Cottonseeds of 3 cultivars were used (FiberMax 913 GLT, FiberMax 910 and DeltaPine 1648 B2RF), obtained in the crop of 2014 in the city of Primavera do Leste, Mato Grosso. The experimental design was entirely randomized, with eight replications of 50 seeds. Determinations of moisture content and weight of a hundred seeds, germination test and germination velocity index, emergency test, and emergency speed index, electrical conductivity and accelerated aging were conducted. The dimensions of the size of the seeds (length, width and thickness) were also determined, with the aid of digital caliper, and the weight of the seeds, with the aid of a balance of precision of resolution 0, 001g. The data was subjected to analysis of variance and the averages compared to the Tukey test at 5% probability. There was no clear relationship between the size of the seed and its physiological performance in assessed cultivars/batches, making it necessary more studies that can prove that type of association.