JPH07289021A - Method for uniforming germination starting period of seed and utilization thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To readily unify a germination starting period of a seed and produce a high-performance coated seed capable of improving.stabilizing germination performance. CONSTITUTION:A seed is immersed in water to make the water content of the seed >=30% dry weight. The prepared seed is retained in a vapor-phase environment having >=50% relative humidity until just before germination to provide a method for unifying the germination starting period of seed. A seed is prepared by the method. A seed is prepared by the method before coating, the prepared seed is coated to provide a coated seed and to provide a method for producing the coated seed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for equalizing the germination start time of seeds and its use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Seed germination rate and germination rate depend on the ripening environment,
Due to various conditions such as the weather at the time of sampling, the sampling technique, etc., it is very likely to fluctuate. However, it is difficult to obtain high-performance seeds having improved and stabilized germination performance only by conventional breeding techniques. Therefore, various techniques for improving the germination performance of seeds have been tried, and some of them have been put to practical use. For example, a method of putting seeds in a continuously aerated hyperosmotic aqueous solution (hereinafter referred to as a liquid phase method).
A method of mixing a seed with a solid material having a high water retention capacity (hereinafter referred to as a solid phase method) and the like are known. More recently, a method of directly spraying and supplying an aqueous solution to a seed in a rotating drum (hereinafter referred to as a semi-vapor phase method) has been developed.

[0003]

However, in the above liquid phase method, a large volume of aqueous solution is required for the amount of seeds, and the operation of separating seeds from a large volume of aqueous solution and the drying operation after separation are performed. There are issues such as complexity.
Further, the above-mentioned solid phase method is accompanied by problems such that a solid material having the same amount as the seed amount is required and the operation of separating the seed from the solid material is extremely difficult industrially. Further, in the above semi-gas phase method, there are problems such as unsuitability for processing a large amount of seeds at a time and high running cost due to relatively long processing time due to drum rotation. At present, there are many problems to be solved in the method.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In view of the above situation, the present inventors have conducted intensive studies in order to find a technique for improving seed germination performance, and as a result, (1) Seed water content The seeds were prepared so as to have a certain value or more, and (2) the prepared seeds were kept in a gas-phase environment with a relative humidity of a certain value or more until just before germination. It was found that the germination start time of the seeds is uniformized, and seeds are prepared by the method before the coating treatment, and the seeds prepared are coated, and the germination start time of the coated seeds is also uniformed. The present invention has been completed. That is, according to the present invention, seeds are impregnated with water so that the water content of the seeds is 30% or more by dry weight, and the obtained seeds are kept in a gas phase environment with relative humidity of 50% or more until just before germination. A method for homogenizing the germination start time of a coated seed, and a seed prepared by the method, a seed prepared by the method before a coating treatment, and a coated seed obtained by coating the prepared seed and a seed thereof. A manufacturing method is provided.

The seeds used in the present invention include:
For example, asteraceae crops such as lettuce, welsh onions, lily family crops such as onions, brassica family crops such as kanran, azalea family crops such as spinach, honeywort, celery, celery family crops such as parsley, asteraceae crops such as burdock, Eggplants such as eggplant and tomato, vegetable seeds such as cruciferous crops such as Japanese radish and Chinese cabbage, flower seeds such as pansy, eustoma and begonia, grass seeds such as guinea grass and rosegrass, rice such as dent corn, rice and barley. Crop seeds such as family crops, tree seeds such as eucalyptus, legume crops such as fava beans, soybeans and peas, chrysanthemum crops such as sunflower, polygon crops such as buckwheat, and rice crops such as edible millet. Etc. can be given.

In the present invention, the water used in "impregnating seeds with water so that the water content of seeds is 30% or more by dry weight" is, for example, distilled water, ion-exchanged water, tap water or the like. Means These waters can also be used in the form of an aqueous solution capable of adjusting the water content of seeds. For example, nitrates, phosphates, inorganic salts such as chlorides, mannitol, sorbitol, saccharides such as trehalose, polyethers such as polyethylene glycol, gibberellin, cytokinin, abscisic acid, fusicoccin, plant hormones such as brassinolide, amino acids Compounds, sulfur-containing compounds such as thiourea, dilute hydrochloric acid, acids and alkalis such as calcium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide solution, peroxides such as calcium peroxide, cytochrome respiration inhibitors such as potassium cyanide and sodium azide, or SHAM (Hydroxamic acids),
Examples thereof include an aqueous solution of a cyanogen-resistant respiratory system inhibitor such as propyl gallate, or a mixture thereof. Acetone in those aqueous solutions or water, if necessary
An aqueous solution added with an organic solvent such as ethanol can also be used. The water content of the seeds is 105 ° C, 16 ° C, relative to the weight (fresh weight) of the seeds in their natural state.
It is a value expressed as a percentage (%) of the weight (dry weight) of the seed dried under the condition of hr, and can be measured and calculated by a usual method. In order to impregnate the seed with water so that the water content of the seed becomes 30% or more by dry weight, a part of the seed undergoing the impregnation treatment is sampled at regular intervals, and the water content of the sample is examined to obtain the desired content. It is possible to use a method of determining whether or not the water content has been reached, and impregnating the seeds with water until the water content reaches or exceeds the target water content. Further, a method in which a preliminary test or the like is performed in advance to determine the impregnation time until the target water content is reached and the impregnation treatment is performed for a time longer than the time can be mentioned as a more suitable method. The water content of the seeds may be any as long as it is 30% or more by dry weight, but preferably the range is from about 40% or more by dry weight to about 100% or less by dry weight.

Next, in the present invention, the gas phase environment having a relative humidity of 50% or more used in "holding the obtained seed in a gas phase environment having a relative humidity of 50% or more until just before germination" is:
It can be easily produced by using a method / apparatus capable of controlling humidity and / or temperature. For example,
As a method for controlling the humidity, a method by a gas-liquid contact operation or a method by a high-humidity gas spraying operation can be mentioned, and as a device, a steam humidifier, a liquid spray humidifier, an evaporation dish or the like can be mentioned. Examples of the method for controlling the temperature include a method of turning on / off a heater and / or a cooler, and examples of the apparatus include a thermostatic chamber and a thermostatic room. The gas phase temperature may be any temperature as long as the relative humidity of the gas phase is 50% or more, but usually, the temperature range of about 0 ° C. or more to about 40 ° C. or more can be mentioned. Preferably about 10 ° C
From the above, the temperature range of about 30 ° C. or lower is preferable. The relative humidity of the gas phase may be any as long as it is 50% or more, but preferably the relative humidity range of about 60% or more can be mentioned. As a more specific example, when the gas phase temperature is about 10 ° C., about 20 ° C., about 30 ° C. or about 40 ° C., a suitable relative humidity of the gas phase is about 70% or more, about 80% or more. The relative humidity range can be up to about%, about 90% or more, or about 95% or more. Furthermore, the gas component of the gas phase can be changed if necessary. Usually, an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21% is sufficient, but it is also effective to use an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21% or more depending on the target seed type, variety, and lot. Furthermore, it is also effective to mix ethylene and / or carbon dioxide in an appropriate component ratio. For example, in Asteraceae crops such as lettuce and Asteraceae plants such as Ona fir, ethylene and carbon dioxide are used as air components so that the ethylene concentration is about 0.1 ppm to about 100 ppm and the carbon dioxide concentration is about 1% to about 20%. It is good to add. In some cases, anaerobic conditions such as nitrogen and carbon monoxide can be used. For example, in grasses such as rice, barley, and barnyard grass, it may be added to the air component in place of oxygen so as to have a nitrogen concentration and / or a carbon monoxide concentration of about 0% to about 21%. Further, in the present invention, when "holding the obtained seeds in a gas-phase environment with a relative humidity of 50% or more until immediately before germination", dark conditions are usually used, but if necessary, the light quality and the amount of light are appropriate. It can also be changed to. Then, the seeds are maintained until just before germination in the gas phase environment created by the above-described methods and conditions (hereinafter referred to as gas phase treatment). In addition, in order to hold until just before germination, a method such as performing a preliminary test or the like in advance to determine a holding time until germination and performing gas phase treatment until just before the time can be mentioned.

The seeds thus prepared have much better uniformity of germination start time than unprepared seeds.

Next, a coated seed obtained by coating the prepared seed (meaning that the surface of the seed is coated with a coating material by a pellet type coating method and / or a film type coating method) is obtained. For production, it is usually obtained by drying the prepared seed and then coating the seed. When the prepared seed is used immediately, the coated seed can be produced by immediately coating the seed without drying it. The dried seeds may be dried by any method that does not cause loss or deterioration of germination performance. Usually, the seed temperature (temperature at the seed-gas phase interface) is maintained at about 70 ° C or lower, preferably about 50 ° C or lower, more preferably about 35 ° C or lower, and the water content of the prepared seed is rapidly removed. The method is suitable. It goes without saying that it is preferable that the prepared seeds are dried uniformly. For this reason, a hot air heat receiving type or conduction heat receiving type drying method is suitable, and as the type of dryer, for example, a tunnel band dryer, a groove type stirring dryer,
A fluidized bed dryer, a drum dryer, a vacuum band dryer, etc. can be mentioned. When a drum dryer is used as a specific example, the temperature of the supply air is in the range of about 50 ° C. to about 100 ° C., and the absolute humidity is about 0.06 kg / kg or less,
Preferably, the range is set to about 0.03 kg / kg or less. The degree of drying can be appropriately selected depending on the period during which the produced coated seeds are stored before being used,
Generally, it is desirable to keep the water content of the seeds below about 15% dry weight, preferably below about 10% dry weight for a storage period of about 1 to about 2 years. As a method for coating the prepared seed, for example, a usual method described in JP-A-58-18748 and JP-A-61-500101 can be used.

Examples will be described in more detail below, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

Example 1 Spinach ( Spinacia oleracea L.) seeds were previously impregnated with distilled water at room temperature for 30 minutes to obtain seeds prepared so that the water content of the seeds would be 70% dry weight. Next, the seeds obtained were allowed to stand for 3 days in a plant growing device (manufactured by Nagano Kagaku Kikai) set to a temperature of 15 ° C. and a relative humidity of 95%. As other conditions at this time, the gas component in the gas phase was an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21%, and the condition was dark. After the above-mentioned treatment by the gas phase method, the prepared seeds were dried by using a drum type ventilation dryer (manufactured by Tanaka Kagaku Kikai) at a temperature of 60 ° C and by supplying dry air with an absolute humidity of 0.05 kg / kg for 30 minutes. Let Seeds dried in this way, ie seeds with improved germination performance (moisture content; 8% dry weight)
Containing 0.5% by weight of Benlate T (wettable powder, manufactured by DuPont Japan Limited) which is a bactericidal agent (1% (w / v) of carboxymethylcellulose)
A coated seed was produced by film coating with an aqueous solution).

Example 2 Carrot (Daucus carota L.) seeds were previously impregnated with distilled water at room temperature for 1 hour to obtain seeds prepared so that the water content of the seeds would be 80% dry weight. Next, the obtained seeds were left to stand for 2 days in a plant growing device (manufactured by Nagano Kagaku Kikai) set at a temperature of 25 ° C. and a relative humidity of 95%. As other conditions at this time, the gas component in the gas phase was an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21%, and the condition was dark. After the above-mentioned treatment by the gas phase method, the prepared seeds were heated at a temperature of 60 ° C. and an absolute humidity of 0.05 kg using a drum type ventilation dryer (manufactured by Tanaka Kagaku Kikai).
It was dried by supplying / kg of dry air for 30 minutes. Seeds dried in this way, that is, seeds with improved germination performance (water content: 4% dry weight), were treated with Benlate T (wetting agent 20, manufactured by DuPont Japan Limited), which is a bactericide, at 0.5. A coated seed was produced by film-coating with a coating material (1% (w / v) aqueous solution of carboxymethylcellulose) contained in a weight percentage.

Test Example 1 Coated seeds produced in Example 1 (hereinafter referred to as the present invention coated seeds), seeds having improved germination performance (hereinafter referred to as the present invention naked seeds), and a target group. Unprepared seeds (hereinafter referred to as unprepared seeds) were subjected to seed germination test in a petri dish (indoor test; 20 ° C, 30 ° C) and in a floor in a greenhouse (field test). Petri dish (indoor test; 20 ° C., 30 ° C.) ... 4.5 ml of distilled water was added as an initial water content to a petri dish having a diameter of 9 cm containing two sheets of qualitative filter paper. The above seeds were sown on a filter paper at a rate of 50 seeds / dishes. This petri dish was allowed to stand in an artificial weather device (manufactured by Nihon Iika) at room temperature of 20 ° C and 30 ° C. Ground floor in a vinyl house (field test) ... Lunch temperature of about 3
On the ground floor in a vinyl house at 5 ° C./night temperature of about 15 ° C., field tests were conducted with 200 seeds per group and 4 repetitions under the condition of seeding interval of 6 cm, 1 seed and seeding depth of 1.5 cm. The irrigation was performed once a day after sowing so that the soil would not be dried. The results are shown in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3. As is clear from the table below, the germination rate and germination rate of the coated seed of the present invention and the naked seed of the present invention were good in all experimental systems. Moreover, no abnormalities were observed in the plants germinated from these seeds. On the other hand, in the non-prepared seeds, the germination rate and the germination rate decreased remarkably as the germination conditions became more severe.

[0014]

[Table 1]

[0015]

[Table 2]

[0016]

[Table 3]

Comparative Example 1 Spinach ( Spinacia oleracea L.) seeds were previously impregnated with distilled water at room temperature for 60 minutes to obtain seeds prepared so that the water content of the seeds would be 100% dry weight. Next, the seeds obtained were allowed to stand in a desiccator at a temperature of 15 ° C. and a relative humidity of 45% for 3 days. As other conditions at this time, the gas component in the gas phase was an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21%, and the condition was dark. After the above treatment by the vapor phase method,
The prepared seeds were dried by using a drum type ventilation dryer (manufactured by Tanaka Kagaku Kikai) at a temperature of 60 ° C. and by supplying dry air having an absolute humidity of 0.05 kg / kg for 30 minutes. Seeds dried in this manner, that is, seeds with improved germination performance (water content: 8% dry weight) were treated with Benlate T (wetting agent 20, manufactured by DuPont Japan Limited), which is a bactericide, at 0.5. A coated seed was produced by film-coating with a coating material (1% (w / v) aqueous solution of carboxymethylcellulose) contained in a weight percentage. Coated seeds produced as described above (hereinafter, referred to as Comparative Example 1: coated seeds) and seeds having improved germination performance (hereinafter, referred to as
Comparative Example 1: Described as naked seed. ) And untreated seeds (hereinafter referred to as unprepared seeds) which are the target groups were subjected to a seed germination test in a petri dish (indoor test; 20 ° C.) in the same manner as in Test Example 1. The results are shown in Table 4. As is clear from the table below, Comparative Example 1: Coated Seeds and Comparative Example 1:
With the naked seeds, the germination rate and germination rate were the same as those of the unprepared seeds, and no improvement or stabilization of germination performance was observed, unlike the coated seeds of the present invention and the naked seeds of the present invention.

[0018]

[Table 4]

Test Example 2 Coated seeds produced according to Example 2 (hereinafter, referred to as Comparative Example 2: coated seeds), seeds having improved germination performance (hereinafter, referred to as Comparative Example 2: bare seeds), and An unprepared seed (hereinafter, referred to as unprepared seed) which is a target group was tested in a petri dish (indoor test; 20 ° C., 30 ° C.) and a seed germination test in a greenhouse (field test) in Test Example 1 The same method was used. The results are shown in Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7. As is clear from the table below, the germination rate and germination rate of the coated seed of the present invention and the naked seed of the present invention were good in all experimental systems. Moreover, no abnormalities were observed in the plants germinated from these seeds.
On the other hand, in the non-prepared seeds, the germination rate and the germination rate decreased remarkably as the germination conditions became more severe.

[0020]

[Table 5]

[0021]

[Table 6]

[0022]

[Table 7]

Comparative Example 2 Carrot (Daucus carota L.) seeds were previously impregnated with distilled water at room temperature for 10 minutes to obtain seeds prepared so that the water content of the seeds would be 25% dry weight. Next, the seeds obtained were allowed to stand for 2 days in a desiccator at a temperature of 25 ° C. and a relative humidity of 100%. As other conditions at this time, the gas component of the gas phase is an air component having an oxygen concentration of 21%,
It was a dark condition. After the above-mentioned treatment by the gas phase method, the prepared seeds were dried with a drum-type ventilation dryer (manufactured by Tanaka Kagaku Kikai) at a temperature of 60 ° C. and a dry air of 0.05 kg / kg absolute humidity to 30 times.
It was dried by feeding for a minute. Seeds dried in this way, that is, seeds with improved germination performance (water content: 4% dry weight), were treated with Benlate T (wetting agent 20, manufactured by DuPont Japan Limited), which is a bactericide, at 0.5. A coated seed was produced by film-coating with a coating material (1% (w / v) aqueous solution of carboxymethylcellulose) contained in a weight percentage. Coated seeds produced as described above (hereinafter referred to as Comparative Example 2: coated seeds) and seeds having improved germination performance (hereinafter referred to as Comparative Example 2:
Described as naked seed. ) And the untreated seeds (hereinafter referred to as unprepared seeds) which are the target plots are petri dishes (indoor test; 20
The seed germination test was conducted in the same manner as in Example 2. The results are shown in Table 8. As is clear from the table below, Comparative Example 2: Coated seeds and Comparative Example 2: in naked seeds, germination rate, germination rate equivalent to unprepared seeds, such as the present invention coated seeds and the present invention naked seeds No improvement or stabilization of germination performance was observed.

[0024]

[Table 8]

[0025]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, it becomes possible to easily uniformize the germination start time of seeds. It has become possible to produce high-performance seeds and coated seeds with improved and stable germination performance.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A seed is impregnated with water so that the water content of the seed is 30% or more by dry weight, and the obtained seed is subjected to relative humidity of 50%.
The method for homogenizing the germination start time of seeds, which is characterized by holding until just before germination in the above gas phase environment. 2. A seed prepared by the method according to claim 1. 3. Coated seed obtained by coating the seed prepared by the method according to claim 1. 4. A method for producing coated seeds, which comprises preparing seeds by the method according to claim 1 before coating and coating the prepared seeds.