Germination of Tropical Forage Seeds Stored in Ambient and Controlled Temperature and Humidity Conditions

Germination of Tropical Forage Seeds Stored in Ambient and Controlled Temperature and Humidity Conditions

Storage of tropical forage seeds in the humid tropics is crit-ical in order to safeguard germination. Storing Mulato hybrid brachiaria (Brachiaria ruziziensis x B. brizantha) seed under ambient conditions could be safely done for 8-12 months in Thailand, but rapid deterioration in viability occurred with longer storage, with seed being totally non-viable after 20 months storage (Hare et al. 2008). However, Mulato seeds kept in cold storage (10°C and 40% RH) for 3 years still maintained 80% germination. Similar results were found in northern Australia (Hopkinson and English 2005) where loss of viability of Panicum maximum, Brachiaria decumbens, Brachiaria humidicola, Setaria sphacelata and Chloris gayana seeds was rapid under am-bient conditions with total death at 3 years. Under cool storage (10°C and 40% RH), maximum seed viability was still maintained after 6 years of storage.