Trends of fescue seed germination (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) during accelerated ageing test

Seed deterioration caused loss of seed quality, viability and germination ability to cause adverse environmental effects. Several factors can cause seed decay. The main cause of temperature, relative humidity, moisture content of seeds, damage to tissues by microorganisms and insects. The ability to predict the deterioration of seed for seed markets and germplasm is very valuable, because it can prevent the loss of seed quality and seed base in the form of regularly renewed. Accelerated ageing test is to put the seeds in artificial aging test conditions of temperature 40 C and relative humidity of 100%, which accelerates the seed metabolism, resulting in deterioration of seeds is rapidly. In this study seeds was placed artificially under 100% humidity at 45°C, for 24, 48, 72, and 120 hours in the incubator. Characterization of seed samples such as germination percentage, rate of germination, root and shoot length, fresh and dry weight and seedling vigor index were treated. The results showed that all traits except root length were decreased significantly with increasing aging time. Accordingly, the mean time to germination, germination, vigor index, seedling fresh weight and shoot length of aging treatments showed a significant decrease with time. But the decrease of root lengths was not significant with increasing duration of treatment.