The amount of harvest and its quality is determined by the quality of seeds used in production which include maturity, moisture content of the seed and variety.
A seed being a fertilized ripened ovule of a flowering plant that contain an embryo capable of germination to produce new plant, good quality seeds have a high percentage of germination and have correct moisture content and free from impurities.
Seed management
As good quality seed germinate at the right time, natural/artificial drying and dry storage conditions are important for the quality. Growers should determine the germinating power of seed for uniformity of plant growth and in selecting seeds, consider viability, damage free, true to type and free from seed bed diseases, weed mixture and mature.
Similarly, test seed viability which involve quality seed evaluation for assurance of good traits. Testing methods include dish method/ dinner plate method, rag doll method and seed box method.
In the dish method, seeds are placed in plate, lines with moist sheet of paper/ cotton, covered with another moist sheet of paper. Seeds are allowed to germinate for several days and germinated seeds are counted while for rag doll method, seeds to be germinated are counted and placed evenly along one side of dump piece of cloth which is rolled, placed on tray and a piece of stick is placed on cloth to allow circulation of air. After 3 days, germinated seeds are counted.
Finally, get box of convenient size and fill it with garden soil and place 100 seeds in it. Water seeds regularly until they germinate then count them and calculate the germination percentage.
