Estimation of geometric and mechanical properties of seeds of Polish cultivars and lines representing selected species of pulse crops

Abstract

A b s t r a c t. The attempt was made at estimation of mechanical loads on seeds, taking into account their geometric properties. Material chosen for the study comprised 24 Polish cultivars and lines of pulse crops representing four species of lupine, sowing and edible pea, vetch, lentil, and grasspea. The initial material for the experiments were air-dry seeds obtained directly from breeders from Polish plant breeding centres. This ensured high level of genetic purity as well as high homogeneity of seed batches. The first stage of the study included determinations of moisture and mass of 1 000 seeds, as well as their geometric parameters, followed by static loading tests. Moisture content of the seeds did not exceed 10%, and mass of 1 000 seeds determined at that moisture level was from 2.02 g for vetch cv. Alba to 31.7 g for white lupine cv. Boros. Among the four lupine cultivars the smallest seeds were characteristic of Andean lupine. Apart from the obvious cultivar-related differences among the various seeds in terms of the mass of 1 000 seeds, the study revealed a high degree of differentiation in the resistance of the seeds to static loading. The observed differences concerned not only inter-variety differences, but also intra-variety differences related with the varied genetic origin of the cultivars and lines as a result of using various parent materials in the breeding process. K e y w o r d s: pulse crops, seed geometry, static loading of seeds, cultivars, lines