THE EFFECT OF FRUITS ON THE PROLONGATION OF SEED DORMANCY AND ITS RELATION TO MUSTARD OIL CONTENT IN CRUCIFEROUS CROPS

In Brassica species, dormancy of freshly harvested seeds can be removed in several months under usual air-dry conditions.
In some species, however, dormancy continues partially much longer when seeds are stored in desiccators.
Further, such prolongation of partial dormancy can be also observed in B. napus, B. cernua and B. carinata when seeds are kept intact in fruits after harvest.
In order to examine the effect of fruits upon interference of removal of dormancy more comprehensively, germination tests of seeds were carried out at weekly intervals during about 25 weeks after harvest, using 12 cultivars of cruciferous crops.
As a result, the effect of fruits was observed only in B. napus and Sinapis arvensis. On the other hand, there is a report that mustard oil (allyl-isothiocyanate) is an inhibitor of seed germination.
Therefore, the amount of allyl-isothiocyanate was measured in the above experiment, and comparison was made between percentage germination and allyl-isothiocyanate.
It was found that allyl-isothiocyanate is not an inhibiting substance for removal of seed dormancy treated here.

Seed Research in Horticulture

S. Tokumasu, M. Kato

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1987.215.17