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The studies on standardization of nursery techniques, viz., pot mixture, growing conditions, container size and age of transplanting, for primary and secondary nursery in Petunia cv. mix revealed that pot mixture with leaf mold either alone or in combination with soil and sand (2:1:2) enhanced the germination of seeds to 98% at primary nursery, and for raising this nursery, polyhouse condition was found to be better than ambient condition. The age of seedling for transplanting from primary to secondary nursery was found to be 16-19 days, which enhanced the emergence and survival percentage. The studies on standardization of container size for secondary nursery revealed that pluck trays with larger size container (8.5 cm diameter) were highly suitable for production of elite seedling. The studies conducted to fix the age of seedling for transplanting from secondary nursery to main field highlighted that 24-27 day-old seedlings at secondary nursery could be well transplanted to main field with 95% establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grading is an important post-harvest operation where the seeds are homogenized based on size, weight and color to upgrade the quality of the seeds. Rice bean is one of the underutilized crops with hidden multipurpose utility. Hence, studies were carried out to upgrade the quality of seeds through sequential dual grading using size and color of the seeds. The seeds were size-graded using BSS 5 × 5, 6 × 6 and 7 × 7 wire mesh sieves and each of the size grades was further graded based on color as yellowish green, light brown and brown and were evaluated for the seed and seedling quality characters. The results revealed that the seeds size-graded using BSS 5 × 5 recorded the maximum seed quality characters in terms of germination and vigor, but it was on a par with BSS 6 × 6 which recorded the maximum recovery. Further, grading based on the color revealed that yellowish green seeds of both BSS 5 × 5 and 6 × 6 sieve recorded the highest germination of 90%, though the recovery was only 10 and 8%. Hence in rice bean, this type of dual grading could be adopted for nuclear and breeder seed production where seeds are to be with higher initial quality. But for commercial seed production both yellowish green and light brown seeds retained in grade BSS 6 × 6 (includes BSS 5 × 5 retained sieve) could be selected as the recovery of seed would be more than 80% combined with seed quality characters which were higher with these dual grading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed development is the period between fertilization and maximum fresh weight accumulation, while maturation is the attainment of maximum physiological stamina, where the seed obtains its capacity to reproduce its generation. At physiological maturity the seed attains its maximum dry weight that mostly (except on possession of seed dormancy) accompanied with higher germination and vigor. The attainment of seed maturation is understood either based on duration from anthesis or through the physical symptoms of fruit /seed. Fruit /seed color often serves as the valuable and easily practicable symptom of seed maturation. But both the symptoms and duration vary with crop to crop, particularly in vegetables in which fruits are the economic part that contains seed. Hence to have a better understanding on the seed development and maturation period and symptoms in vegetable crops, work done so far on the said objective was reviewed and summerized, which would be helpful in production quality seed of vegetable crops including leafy vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies were conducted on the female parent (TCH 1218) of cotton hybrid TCHB 213 to identify the optimum duration of crossing period for better seed setting and evaluate the influence on seed quality characters. The study brought out the beneficial effects of seeds crossed up to seven weeks after first flowering. The seed quality components, in terms of boll weight, number of seeds boll-1 and 100 seed weight, were significantly higher up to seven weeks of crossing after first flowering than the latter period. The germination potential of crossed seeds up to third week was more than 80%; from fourth to seventh week, it was above 70%, and from eighth to ninth week, it decreased to less than 70%. The seedling vigor, in terms of root length, shoot length, drymatter production, vigor index and oil and protein content of seeds, also reduced with increase in crossing periods from first flowering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeds of paddy cv. white ponni were biofortified with two types (young and old leaves) of four different leaf extracts (arappu, moringa, tamarind and prosopis) at three different concentrations (2%, 5% and 10%) and stored under ambient conditions for one month and evaluated for the performance based on seed invigoration and existence of the invigorative effect on short-term storage. The results revealed that seeds fortified with 2% young leaf extract of prosopis recorded 4.4 and 5.0% higher initial germination compared to hydropriming and control with enhanced seedling vigor. On storage, the seeds fortified with 2% prosopis retained the seed and seedling quality characters at higher order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]