Maturação fisiológica de sementes de capim-buffel cv. aridus

Abstract

The knowledge of the best harvesting season is essential for the production of high quality seeds. The objective of this work was to study the maturation process of buffelgrass seeds with the purpose of determining the best harvesting season, aiming at the maximum quality of the seeds. The experimental design was the completely randomized, composed of six seasons of seed harvesting, with four replications. During the inflorescence emission phase, they were tagged by observing the presence of five to ten emergent inflorescences per m². The first harvest of the seeds was performed at 20 days after inflorescence emission and the other crops were harvested at intervals of five days, for a total of six harvests. The seeds harvested were taken to the UNIMONTES Seed Analysis Laboratory to perform manual processing. The physical and physiological quality of the seeds were evaluated through the water content, dry mass, germination, first count, emergency speed index and electrical conductivity tests. The maximum accumulation of dry matter (mass maturity) in the buffelgrass seeds occurs at 40 days after inflorescence emission. The physiological maturity of the buffelgrass seeds (maximum germination and vigor) occurs between 38 and 42 days after inflorescence emission.