Seed testing
Encyclopedia
Seed testing is performed in dedicated laboratories by trained and usually certified analysts. The tests are designed to evaluate the quality of the seed
lot being sold. Several tests are done:
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
lot being sold. Several tests are done:
- GerminationGerminationGermination is the process in which a plant or fungus emerges from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the...
test: Reports the percentage of seed that germinated. Tests are usually made in 200 or 400 seed samples. - Purity test: The percentage of seed described on the label that is actually found in the quantity of seed.
- TZ test: A test for viability that involves three steps: 1. preconditioning (imbibition); 2. preparation and staining (sometimes cutting the seed and then soaking the seed in a 2,3,5 triphenyl tetrazolium chlorideTetrazolium chlorideTriphenyl tetrazolium chloride, TTC, or simply Tetrazolium chloride is a redox indicator commonly used in biochemical experiments especially to indicate cellular respiration....
solution); and 3. evaluation (examining the seed for a color change in the embryoEmbryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
). - WeedWeedA weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
test: Examines a sample of seed and identifies every seed that is different from the labeled seed kind.