The aim of this study was to determine whether the loss of germinability and vigour in wall-rocket seed lots was related to electrolyte leakage. Ten seed lots of 2 wall-rocket species (9 of Diplotaxis tenuifolia and one of D. erucoides) were stored at 45 °C and 70% relative humidity and electrolyte leakage was measured using the conductivity test. | Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Research Article Turk J Agric For (2014) 38: 857-864 © TÜBİTAK doi: Germination and electrical conductivity tests on artificially aged seed lots of 2 wall-rocket species 1 2, 1 2 Simona-Laura LAZAR , Sara MIRA *, Doru PAMFIL , Juan Bautista MARTÍNEZ-LABORDE 1 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2 Plant Biology Department, School of Agronomics Engineering, Technical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether the loss of germinability and vigour in wall-rocket seed lots was related to electrolyte leakage. Ten seed lots of 2 wall-rocket species (9 of Diplotaxis tenuifolia and one of D. erucoides (Brassicaceae)) were stored at 45 °C and 70% relative humidity and electrolyte leakage was measured using the conductivity test. Small differences in longevity were found among species or seed lots, suggesting that a similar relative longevity might be expected within the genus Diplotaxis after artificial ageing, and that it will be above the average of that found in other species of the same family at similar storage conditions. Electrolyte loss was strongly related to loss of seed viability. There was a negative linear relationship between conductivity and seed germination (R2 = ), and a positive relationship with T50 (R2 = ). Small differences were found among species or seed lots regarding the correlation between electrolyte leakage and seed germination and vigour. Our results indicate that the conductivity method is able to predict the viability of wall-rocket seeds stored at 45 °C and 70% RH, with the same regression equation of conductivity and germination (– + ) being able to predict the viability of different seed lots and species. A .
