Madras Agric. J., 98 (1-3): 29-32, March 2011

Seed Development and Maturation Studies in Ambrette (Abelmoschus moschatus Medic.) S. Sundareswaran, S. Sathish* and A. Vijayakumar Department of Seed Science & Technology Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003

The results of the seed development and maturation studies in ambrette revealed that the pods and seeds attained physiological maturity on 35 days after anthesis as evidenced by the maximum dry weight of pod (2.694 g) and seed (12.63 mg) combined with minimum moisture content of pod (23.45%) and seed (21.64%). The change in colour of pod and seed from green to brown could be considered as a visible index of maturity. The seed quality parameters viz., germination (41%), 100 seed weight (1.468 g), seedling length (16.3 cm) and drymatter (8.0 mg) and vigour index (668) were also maximum at 35 days after anthesis. Keywords: Ambrette, seed development, physiological maturity, drymatter accumulation

Ambrette (Abelmoschus moschatus Medic.) is an important medicinal and aromatic plant, which is widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics of both the hemispheres. It belongs to the family Malvaceae and the genus Abelmoschus. Ambrette is propagated through seeds. Like other crops, use of good quality seed is indispensable for the successful production of ambrette crop. However, information on seed technological aspects in ambrette is scanty, which needs to be generated. Seed maturity is the crucial and the most important factor determining its quality (Austin, 1972). In most of the crops, the duration of seed filling is a powerful yield determinant (Evans, 1975). Fixation of optimum stage of physiological as well as harvestable maturity will ensure better quality seed and reduce shattering loss. Hence, knowledge on development and maturation of seed will be useful to know the deleterious effect of environmental factors on the quality of seeds. With these backgrounds, studies were carried out with the objective to trace the pattern of seed development and maturation to fix the physiological and harvestable maturity of seeds. Materials and Methods Seeds collected from the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore formed the basic material for this investigation. The laboratory experiments were conducted at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. To trace the pattern of seed development and maturation in ambrette, crop was raised in the Eastern block of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. During anthesis, a large number of fully opened flowers were individually tagged. Pods were harvested at seven days interval from the day of *Corresponding author email: [email protected]

anthesis upto 42 days after anthesis in five replications comprising five pods per replication. At each stage of harvest, observations on pod characters viz., length, girth, volume, fresh weight, dry weight and moisture content (ISTA, 1999) were recorded and also physiological characters of seeds viz., number of seeds per pod, seed fresh weight and dry weight, moisture content (ISTA, 1999), 100 seed weight, seed germination (ISTA, 1999), root length, shoot length, hard seed content, drymatter production, vigour index (Abdul-Baki and Anderson, 1973) were recorded. Data obtained were analysed using 'F' test for significance following the methods described by Panse and Sukhatme (1999). Results and Discussion Seed maturation refers to the morphological, physiological and functional changes that occurred from the time of fertilization until the matured seed is ready for harvesting (Delouche, 1973). According to Harrington (1972), physiological maturity is the stage at which the seed reaches its maximum dry weight and nutrient flow from mother plant to the seed ceases. The cessation of nutrient flow is due to breakage of vascular connection to the seed by the formation of an abscission layer at physiological maturity (Eastin et al., 1973). Effect of maturation stages on pod characters

In the present study the length and girth of pods were increased rapidly upto 28 days after anthesis, thereafter the change in these parameters remained non significant. Whereas, the volume of pod was rapidly increased upto 21 DAA and thereafter decreased drastically (Table 1). The rapid pod growth at initial stages might be due to more uptake of water when the intake of carbon and nitrogen was comparatively low (Patel et al., 1977). The

30 Table 1. Changes in ambrette pod characters during development and maturation Stages of pod development (Days after anthesis) 7 14 21 28 35 42 Mean SEd CD (P 0.05)

Length of Pod (cm)

Girth of Pod (cm)

Volume of pod (cc pod-1)

4.54 6.10 8.15 8.47 8.40 8.38 7.34 0.082 0.178

6.58 8.67 9.77 9.83 9.70 9.65 9.03 0.163 0.356

12.10 15.40 18.51 16.00 15.40 14.41 15.30 0.249 0.546

Fresh weight of pod (g)

Dry weight of Moisture Pod (g) content of pod (%)

3.364 6.732 7.725 3.896 2.830 2.810 4.560 0.163 0.356

1.160 1.959 2.236 2.587 2.694 2.583 2.203 0.082 0.178

83.13 79.43 63.41 41.36 23.45 17.46 51.37

(65.65) (63.01) (52.77) (40.16) (28.93) (24.65) (45.74) 0.938 2.044

Figures in parentheses indicate transformed (arcsine) values

declining trend in pod volume after 21 DAA might be due to the rapid dehydration and shrinking of matured pod as reported by Dharmalingam and Basu (1989) in mungbean. The fresh weight of pod increased with stages of development. The maximum fresh weight of pod (7.725 g) was recorded at 21 DAA and started decreasing in later stages. This might be due to quick development of seeds and high moisture content of earlier stage of development and subsequent desiccation at later stages. Similar results were also reported by Kalavathi (1996) in senna; whereas, the dry weight of pod increased rapidly upto 28 DAA (2.587 g). The increase in dry weight of pod was non significant beyond 28 DAA (Table 1). The loss of water during maturation is an inherent phase of development (McIIrath et al., 1963). Loss of moisture during ripening and maturation of pod and seed is a common phenomenon and has been observed in many crops (Karivaratharaju, 1974). In the present study, there is a significant difference in moisture

content of pod at different stages of seed development and maturation. The moisture content of pod was maximum (83.13%) at 7 DAA. The moisture content decreased rapidly up to 42 DAA (17.46 %) in pod (Table 1). Effect of maturation stages on physiological characters of seeds

The changes in the colour of both pod and seed were observed during the stages of development. The pods and seeds were green in colour up to 21 DAA and gradually changed to brown colour at 35 DAA, which indicates the physiological maturity of seeds. As the seed matured, the integmentary vascular system was destroyed, which coincided with turning of seed coat colour as reported by Carlson (1973). Similar results in change of seed colour were also reported by Baruah and Paul (1997) in okra. The number of seeds per pod ranged from 105 (14 DAA) to 89 (42 DAA), but remained non significant between the stages 7 and 35 DAA (Table

Table 2. Changes during seed development and maturation in ambrette Stages of pod development (Days after anthesis) 7 14 21 28 35 42 Mean SEd CD (P 0.05)

No. of seeds Pod-1

Fresh weight of seed (mg seed-1)

103 105 103 102 101 89 101 2.40 5.24

10.20 25.15 31.33 22.13 16.12 15.04 19.99 1.59 3.46

Dry weight of seed (mg seed-1) 02.55 07.69 10.34 11.12 12.63 12.65 9.49 0.61 1.32

100 seed weight (g) 0.289 0.846 1.037 1.233 1.468 1.472 1.057 0.070 0.153

Seed Moisture content (%) 75..29 69.54 63.90 44 .36 21.64 19.33 49.01

(60.13) (56.48) (53.07) (42.15) (27.69) (25.06) (44.43) 2.638 5.749

Figures in parentheses indicate transformed (arcsine) values

2). The fresh weight of seed increased with stages of development. The maximum fresh weight of seed (31.33 mg) was recorded at 21 DAA and started decreasing in later stages. This might be due to quick development of seeds and high moisture content at earlier stages of development and subsequent desiccation at later stages. Similar results were also reported by Kalavathi (1996) in senna; whereas, the dry weight of seed increased

significantly up to 35 DAA (12.63 mg). The increase in dry weight seed was non significant beyond 35 DAA (Table 2). This indicated that the large amount of reserve food materials were accumulated in the seeds till 35 DAA and the seed development continued beyond the development of pod. As like that of fresh and dry weight there is a significant difference in moisture content of seed at

31 different stages of seed development and maturation. The moisture content of seeds was maximum (75.29 %) at 7 DAA. The moisture content decreased rapidly up to 35 DAA (23.45 %) in seed. However, the decrease in seed moisture content beyond 35 DAA is non significant (Table 2). The reduction in moisture content due to advancement of maturity of pod and seed might be due to desiccation and dehydration (Abdul-Baki and Anderson, 1973). The decrease in moisture content accompanied with increase in dry weight of seeds up to 35 DAA indicated the continuous accumulation of food reserves in the developing seeds (Metha et al., 1993). Significant increase in 100 seed weight upto 35 DAA (1.468 g; Table 2) had also supported the fact that the seed development continued upto 35 DAA in ambrette. Similar trends in seed development and 100 seed weight were also observed by Kalavathi (1996) in Hibiscus sabdariffa, Gunasekaran (2003) in Solanum nigrum and Rajasekaran (2004) in brinjal.

The seeds started to germinate 28 DAA and the germination percent (20%) significantly increased with increase in seed maturity up to 35 DAA (41 %) and further increase was not significant (42 %) at 42 DAA (Table 3). The increasing trend in germination percent during the developmental stages and attainment of maximum germination might be related to the accumulation of maximum drymatter associated with decrease in seed moisture. Similar increase in germination with increase in maturity was also reported by Demir and Samit (2001) in tomato. Hard seeds were developed at 35 DAA (46 %) and increased to 51 per cent at 42 DAA and was noticed with the increase in period of retention of seeds on the mother plant (Table 3). The non occurrence of hard seeds at early stages and occurrence at full maturity stage (35 DAA) indicated that the embryo maturity preceded the development of impermeable testa. Further increase in hard seed content beyond physiological maturity stage (35 DAA) might be due to the delayed harvest, which led

Table 3. Changes in ambrette seed attributes in development and maturation Stages of pod development (Days after anthesis) 7 14 21 28 35 42 Mean SEd CD (P 0.05)

Germination (%) 00 (0.00) 00 (0.00) 00 (0.00) 20 (26.57) 41(39.82) 42 (40.40) 17 (24.35) 1.732 3.774

Root length (cm) 00 00 00 7.0 7.3 7.4 3.6 0.158 0.343

Shoot length (cm) 00 00 00 8.6 9.0 9.1 4.5 0.115 0.252

Hard seed content (%) 00 (0.00) 00 (0.00) 00 (0.00) 00 (0.00) 46 (42.71) 51 (45.57) 16 (23.58) 0.942 2.054

Drymatter production (mg seedling-1) 00 00 00 7.2 8.0 8.1 3.9 0.092 0.201

Vigour index 000 000 000 312 668 693 279 12.440 27.095

Figures in parentheses indicate transformed (arcsine) values

to the desiccation and structural changes in seed coat (Dharmalingam and Basu, 1989). The root and shoot length of the seedlings were also increased significantly upto 35 DAA (Table 3). This could be attributed to maximum drymatter accumulation of the seeds, which might have provided more energy in the growth process (Tupper, 1969). Drymatter production of seedlings was attributed as manifestation of the physiological efficiency dependent of seed vigour (Heydecker, 1973). The increase in drymatter production by the seedling and vigour index values were also exhibited the similar trend as that of germination, root length and shoot length, which indicated the attainment of physiological maturity of the seeds at 35 DAA (Table 3). Similar results were also reported by Kersting et al. (1961) and Suresh Babu et al. (2003) in brinjal and Bishnoi (1974) in triticale.

Austin, R.B. 1972. Effects of environment before harvesting on viability. In: Viability of seeds (ed. E.H. Roberts), Chapman and Hall, London, 114-149p.

References

Eastin, J.D., Hultquist, J.H. and Sullivan, C.Y. 1973. Physiological maturity in sorghum. Crop Sci., 13: 175178.

Abdul-Baki, A.A. and Anderson, J.D. 1973. Vigour determination in soybean seed by multiple criteria. Crop Sci., 13: 630-633.

Baruah, G.K.S. and Paul, S.R. 1997. Seed development and mutation studies in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus). Ann. Agric. Res., 18: 367-368. Bishnoi, U.R. 1974. Physiological maturity of seeds in Tritical hexaploid L. Crop. Sci., 14: 819-821. Carlson, J.B. 1973. Morphology. In: Soyabeans improvement, production and uses (Ed. B.E. cald well), American Society of Agronomy. 12-28p. Delouche, J.C. 1973. Seed maturation. In: seed production manual. NSC and Rock feller Foundation, 162-165p. Demir, I. and Samit. 2001. Seed quality in relation to fruit maturation and seed dry weight during development in tomato. Seed Sci. & Technol., 29: 453-462. Dharmalingam, C. and Basu, R.N. 1989. Seed development and maturation studies in mungbean. Seed Res., 17: 103-108.

Evans, L.T. 1975. The physiological basis of crop yield. In: Crop physiology-Some case histories (Ed. L.T.

32 Evans), Cambridge University, Press, Cambridge, 8589p. Gunasekaran, S. 2003. Seed development and maturation, extraction methods, germination test and storage in Solanum nigram Linn. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.

McIIrath, W.J., Abrol, Y.P. and Heiligman, F. 1963. Dehydration of seeds in intact tomato fruits. Science, 142: 1681. Metha, C.J., Kuhad, M.S., Sheoran, I.S. and Nandwal, A.S. 1993. Studies on seed development and germination in chickpea cultivars. Seed Res., 21: 89-91.

Harrington, J.F. 1972. Seed storage and longevity. In: Seed Biology (III) (Ed. T.T. Kozlowski), Academic Press, New York, pp. 145-245.

Panse, V.G. and Sukhatme, P.V. 1999. Statistical methods for agricultural workers. ICAR Publication, New Delhi, 327-340p.

Heydecker, W. 1973. Vigour. In: Viability of seeds (Ed. E.H. Roberts), Chapman and Hall, London, 209-252p.

Patel, J.S., Sharkey, P. J. and Atkins, C.A. 1977. Nutrition of developing legume fruit. Plant Physiol., 59: 506-510.

ISTA, 1999. International Rules for Seed Testing. Seed Sci. & Technol., Supplement Rules, 27: 25-30.

Rajasekaran, R. 2004. Investigation on seed production, enhancement and storage techniques in brinjal hybrid COBH 1 (Solanum melongena L.) and its parental lines. Ph.D. Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.

Kalavathi, D. 1996. Seed production, processing, testing and storage studies in medicinal plants of Senna, Periwinkle and Roselle. Ph.D. Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Karivaratharaju, T.V. 1974. Studies on seed maturation aspects for fixing maximum physiological maturity to achieve maximum vigour and dry weight. Annual Progress Report, 1973-74. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Kersting, J.F., Stickler, F.C. and Pauli, A.W. 1961. Grain sorghum caryopsis development, change in dry weight, moisture percentage and viability. Agron. J., 53: 36-38.

Suresh Babu, T., Kurdikeri, M.B., Shekhargouda, M., Shashidhara, S.D. and Dharmatti, P.R. 2003. Influence of fruit maturity stages and post harvest ripening on seed yield and quality in brinjal. Seed Res., 31: 204208. Tupper, C.R. 1969. Physical characteristics of cotton seed related to seedling vigour and design parameters for seed selection. Ph.D. Thesis, Texas A and M Univ. College Station.

Received: August 5, 2010; Accepted: February 20, 2011

7 108 10 article final.pmd

Department of Seed Science & Technology. Tamil Nadu ... information on seed technological aspects in ambrette is scanty ..... M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Tamil Nadu.

640KB Sizes 4 Downloads 215 Views

Recommend Documents

8 10 10 article final.pmd
germination rate but lowered seed resistance to deterioration. Similar findings were reported for lettuce Tarquis and Bradford (1992) leek and carrot. (Dearman et al., 1987), Salvia splendens (Carpenter,. 1989), celery (Singh, et al., 1985), Trifoliu

Article 7 - BOA.pdf
Division of Planning, upon request of the appli- cant, may, if the facts warrant, make a. determination that the conditions have been. satisfied and enter the facts ...

6 01 10 article final.pmd
and CRMS 32A for filled grains per panicle. Among. Madras Agric. J., 97 (4-6): 110-113, June 2010. *Corresponding author email: [email protected]\ ...

7 64 09 article final.pmd
Azospirillum biofertilizer, using 10% wheat flour gruel on seed and seedling quality characters including storability was evaluated in a study conducted with sesame cv CO1. ... material for the study. The field experiments and laboratory experiments

6 28 10 article final.pmd
In India maize is the important cereal crop next to rice and ... countries like India maize is becoming a commercial crop due to its ... *Corresponding author email: [email protected] ... loam with 1.41 g cc -1, 22.6 and 11.4 per cent bulk.

8 31 10 article final.pmd
Maize has many possible uses viz., food, feed for livestock ... frequencies viz., once a day or once every two days .... The data pertaining to the experiment were.

19 07 10 article final.pmd
*Corresponding author email: [email protected] .... Figures in parentheses indicate arc sine transformed values; *Values are mean of four replications ...

10 133 09 article final.pmd
Department of Seed Science and Technology, Seed Centre. Tamil Nadu .... M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,. Coimbatore. Ridley, H.N. ...

20 107 10 article final.pmd
grow them profitably as intercrop in coconut and get additional revenue from their coconut garden. ... as intercrop gave extra income in coconut groves.

21 116 10 article ist proof.pmd
*Corresponding author email: [email protected]. Madras Agric. J., 98 (1-3): .... NPK through drip, T3-100% RDF of NPK through drip, T4- 150% RDF of ...

5 91 10 article Final.pmd
Mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency of Gamma ray was studied in two genotypes of. Kodomillet ... *Corresponding author email: [email protected].

6 98 10 article final.pmd
*Corresponding author email: [email protected] .... ability in relation to diallel crossing system. Austr. J. Biol. ... and wheat Newsletter, 10: 8-12. Panse ...

1 10 09 article final.pmd
Studies were conducted to find out the influence of presowing treatments on germination and seedling vigour of 9 month-old teak drupes (fruit with seed). The presowing treatments included were soaking in water followed by drying (S-D) for 6days at 12

22 001 10 article Final.pmd
A study was under taken at CSRTI, Mysore to evaluate the effect of soil test based fertilizer recommendation over general recommendation and farmer's practice on improvement of soil fertility, leaf yield and quality of mulberry. It was observed that

10 84 09 article final.pmd
Field investigation was carried out at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during summer 2006 and winter 2006-2007 to elicit information on the effect of intercropping system, inorganic fertilizers, biofertilizers and leaf extract sp

10 133 09 article final.pmd
tiger lily or tiger claws, is an important medicinal plant of the Tropics (Ridley, 1924). The glory lily is native to both Asia and Africa. Paramasivam and. Arumugam, (1991) reported that major problems in the cultivation of glory lily were scarcity

19 97 10 article final.pmd
Canopy Spread in Acid Lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle). A. Baskaran*, S. Parthiban and K. Sundharaiya. Oilseeds Research Station. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tindivanam-604 001. A field experiment was conducted at Horticultural College and

17 81 10 article final.pmd
AEC& RI, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003. **Agricultural ... was the best fit probability distribution for annual one day maximum rainfall.

13 75 10 article final.pmd
*1Corresponding author email:[email protected] ... and has 1.36 (g cc-1) bulk density. Soil has pH ..... Fertigation - A key to boost Indian agri exports.

15 84 10 article 2nd Proof.pmd - Sites
*Corresponding author email: [email protected]. Madras Agric. J., 97 (10-12): 350-352, December 2010. Prosomillet (Panicum miliaacum L.) is a.

14 76 10 article final.pmd
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most versatile crops and can be grown in diverse environmental conditions and has diversified uses as human food and animal feed. Besides its use as food and fodder, maize is now gaining importance on account of its

14 21 10 article final.pmd
Application of TNAU seri dust followed by Psoralea extract per os drastically reduced the larval mortality from 3.28 to 1.35 per cent. Maximum larval weight, cocoon weight, shell weight, shell ratio and cocoon yield ... carried out in all Technical S

Municipal Article 10.pdf
Location of Recreational Vehicle Parks. ..... recreation. b. Motorized home, motor home and/or recreational bus or van. A. recreational vehicle consisting of a portable, temporary dwelling to be. used for travel, recreation and vacation uses, and con

13 02 10 article final.pmd
12.5 t ha-1; T3- NPK + Borax @ 15 kg ha-1 + composted ... it was on par with T3, B @ 15 kg ha-1 along with CCP .... are in line with earlier report of Tripathy et al.