Ways of improving winter wheat seed quality during pre-sowing preparation

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on the peculiarities of improving the quality of seeds during their sorting by specific gravity on a pneumatic table in the process of pre-sowing preparation of winter wheat seeds on a modern technological line. Laboratory, weighing and measuring, mathematical and statistical. Pre-sowing seed preparation was carried out with seeds of five batches of seeds selected by the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences under different modes of pneumatic sorting table operation. Seed sorting was carried out at different angles of inclination of the sieve surface: the longitudinal angle of inclination was 1.0 º and remained unchanged, and the transverse angle was changed from 2.75 to 4.00 º. In such modes, the seeds stay on the sieve surface of the pneumatic table for the longest time and, accordingly, they are better sorted. It was established that when sorting winter wheat seeds to increase their weight of 1000 seeds and, accordingly, germination, increasing the transverse angle of the sieve surface to 4.0 º without changing the longitudinal angle provided, with insignificant seed waste (13.7 %), an increase in the weight of 1000 seeds on average by 4.9 g in varieties compared to the control - without sorting. The yield of prepared seeds depended both on the varietal characteristics and on the weight of 1000 seeds. With increasing weight of 1000 seeds, the yield of prepared seeds decreases. The highest yield ‒ 92.4 % was obtained when sorting seeds of Darinka Kyivska variety under the mode of longitudinal angle of inclination of the sieve surface of the pneumatic table 1.0 º, transverse 4.00 º, the lowest ‒ 84.0 %, of Gorodnytsia and Novosmuglianka varieties under the same sorting mode. The varieties reacted differently to the modes of sorting winter wheat seeds. Seed sorting by specific gravity on a pneumatic table during its pre-sowing preparation on the technological line of the Institute with a small waste, which averaged 13.3 % for the varieties, provided seeds with a germination rate of 97‒99 %, which was 5‒7 % higher than the requirements of the current standard.