Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: High temperature and humidity combine to cause rapid seed deterioration of seeds under ambient conditions of storage, causing poor quality seeds hence poor productivity in Agricultural crop production. An investigation was conducted whether seed drying using desiccants (zeolite beads) and airtight packaging would prevent or ameliorate these consequences of storage. The laboratory experiment was laid out in completely randomized design with three replications and five treatments which include storage of seeds using airtight container, airtight container with silica gel (1:1), airtight container with zeolite beads (1:1), poly pouches and cloth bag as control. The difference in moisture content was statistically significant for all the treatments. Seed dried and stored with zeolite desiccant beads showed lowest moisture (2.1%) after 6 months of storage and slightly changed to 2.3% after 8 months of storage, followed by silica gel (5.2%), cloth bag (9.6%), poly pouch (13.3%) and airtight container (13.5%) after eight months of storage period. The seedling vigour index I varied significantly among the treatments.
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4401037299