Semi-automated assessment of the embryonic area of cucumber seeds and its relationship to germination and seedling length

Automated evaluations are highly useful for the seed industry to provide reliable information about different parameters of seed quality and fast results and to reduce errors based on human visual analysis. The objective of this research was to identify variations in the degree of embryo development in commercial cucumber seed lots and their relationship with physiological potential. Seeds of Supremo and Safira cultivars (four lots each), with germination above 90%, were X-rayed, evaluated according to embryonic area (using the Tomato Analyzer software) and germinated (4 days at 25 °C); germination percentage and seedling length data were obtained. The average seed embryo area was 79.7 and 80.9% (Supremo and Safira, respectively), ranging from 4.4 and 1.0 percentage points among the lots of each cultivar. The semiautomated analysis using the Tomato Analyzer software identifies small variations in the embryonic development of cucumber seed lots; seeds with an embryonic area less than 78.1% were more likely to produce less developed seedlings.