STORABILITY OF RICE SEED WITH VARIED MOISTURE CONTENT IN EARTHEN POT OF DIFFERENT FORMS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the farm laboratory of the department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University during the period from June to December, 2013. The experiment was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of different storage containers with different seed moisture content on seed quality of boro rice (BRRI dhan28) seeds. Different storage containers used in the study were C1 = coalter coated earthen pot, C2 = traditional earthen pot and C3 = polythene bag contained in traditional earthen pot. Different seed moisture contents were M1= 10% seed moisture, M2= 12% seed moisture, M3= 14% seed moisture and M4= 16% seed moisture. The experiment was designed in Completely Randomized consisting two factors: storage container and seed moisture content. Seed quality measuring parameter viz. seed moisture and germination percentage, seed vigour and seedling vigour were determined at 2 months interval i.e. in August, October and December. The storage container, coalter coated earthen pot (C1) showed the highest germination, normal seedlings and vigour index followed by polythene bag in traditional earthen pot (C3) and traditional earthen pot (C2) where the last one showed significantly the lowest. Seed moisture percentage, electrical conductivity was the highest in traditional earthen pot but lowest in coalter coated earthen pot. Seed vigour, seedling root-shoot length were significantly affected when the rice seeds were stored in traditional earthen pot with 16% seed moisture content. The coalter coated earthen pot with irrespective of seed moisture content could produce normal seedling up to the end of the storage i.e. December, 2013 but polythene bag contained in earthen pot and traditional earthen pot could produce only up to August, 2013. Storing rice seeds with 12% seed moisture in coalter coated earthen pot performed better than with 10% seed moisture content. The moisture content of seed during storing was the critical factor on which the time of storage was dependent with regard to seed viability. Higher the moisture contents of seed at storage, higher the rapidity of viability loss.