Seed Germination

Introduction

        Seed, as defined by plant biologists, is a matured fertilized ovule. It is an embryo with supply of nutrients (Campbell et al., 2009). It is composed of an embryo, a seed coat and stored food. Seeds are normally inputs to agricultural activities such as farming. It is used in reproducing more species of a specific plant.

        Seed dormancy is a physiological process that stops the growth of a seed (Campbell et al., 2009). It may also be defined as the failure of the seed to completely germinate even under favorable responses. Dormancy also involved the termination of metabolism of the seeds (Campbell et al., 2009).

Despite these, there are also ways on how to break seed dormancy. Dormancy can be stopped naturally or artificially. Examples for natural breaking of seed dormancy include animal ingestion and natural seed acidity, while example for artificial breaking of dormancy is scarification (Crop Science Cluster UPLB, 2012).

On the other hand, seed germination is known as the growth of the seed. It is a complex plant physiological process which starts when water, through the process of imbibition, enters the seed. As water enters the seed, activation of enzymes occurs followed by the hydrolysis, or breakdown through water, of reserved food. After which, translocation and metabolism of assimilates take place and finally, the seed emerges and grows.

The focus of the experiment was to determine the percentage of seeds that will germinate after certain conditions. The objectives of the study were as follows:

1. To determine the percent germination of dormant Ipil-ipil seed treated under certain conditions,
2. To determine the percent germination of seeds stored under different moisture levels,
3. To determine the percent germination of recalcitrant seeds.

The experiment was conducted last 21st day of April 2016 at Room 137, Crop Science Cluster, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños Campus.

Results and Discussion

        This section of the scientific paper presents the tables and the interpretation of the numerical data gathered after the experimentation.

Table 1: Breaking dormancy of ipil-ipil seeds

The table above presents the number of germinated Ipil-ipil seeds expressed in percentage. It can be seen from the table above that seeds that undergo the clipping treatment to break seed dormancy had the highest number of seed germination. The first set-up under the clipping treatment got the highest which is 82% while the lowest was 5% under the first set of seeds of the control set-up. With the numerical data presented above, it can be concluded that among the four treatments performed during experimentation, clipping treatment is the most effective to break seed dormancy.

Table 2.1: Effect of initial moisture content on the storability of plant seeds (rice)

        The table on the previous page presents the percentage germination of stored rice seeds with different moisture contents. It can be seen that set-up 2 under the 11% moisture content treatment got the highest percentage of germinated seeds amounting to 90% while the set-up 1 under the 20% moisture content got the lowest percentage of germinated seeds amounting to 0%. There is a large percent difference between the two set-ups. Observing the numerical data in general, the average of the 11% moisture content treatment is higher than the average of the seeds treated under the 20% moisture content.

Table 2.2: Storability of recalcitrant seeds (cacao)

        The table above presents the number of germinated seeds expressed in percentage. The first group was composed of fresh seeds and the other was the group of seeds stored for one week. It can be observed that all freshly extracted seeds germinated gaining an average of 100% germination. On the other hand, no seeds germinated under the group of seeds stored for a week, averaging 0% germination. Based on the data gathered, it can be said that freshly extracted seeds have the higher potential in germinating compared to those stored for a week.