Posição da semente na determinação de vigor pelo crescimento de plantulas em diferentes cultivares de soja

Abstract

High quality seeds are one of the main determinants of grain production, as their origin, purity, vigor and other attributes are assured. Vigor tests are procedures used to measure and classify seed quality, as only germination tests cannot guarantee al the quality attributes needed to determine seed quality. Vigor can be defined as the sum of attributes that gives seeds the ability to germinate and emerge in adverse environmental conditions. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design in a 3x4 factorial scheme with 3 seed positions and 4 soybean cultivars. The variables analyzed were: total seedling length, hypocotyl length, root length, total seedling dry mass, hypocotyl dry mass and root dry mass. It was observed that the positions that favor the root geotropic growth at the time of the protrusion provide higher vegetative and root means. Thus, to obtain soybean seedlings with longer average shoot and root lengths, the seeds should be arranged with the hil sideways or downwards.