A favourite experimental system for these studies has been the germinating seed.
Because the latter phenomenon is so closely tied to environmental attributes, the physical surroundings of germinating seeds will be discussed first.
Aged seeds were less vigorous, but they were not dead since they had almost all germinated after 7 d (results not shown).
Germination trials were continued for a period of 30 days, during which time seeds were examined every second day and germinated seeds counted and removed.
The majority of the seeds germinated within 7 d of being exposed to the alternating temperature/light regimes.
Under these conditions the hydropriming pretreatment could be prolonged up to 5 d since none of the seeds germinated by this time.
None of the caryopses matured in this regime germinated at zero time compared with an initial germination of 42% for the well-watered control.
Seeds with radicles 2 mm were considered to be germinated and thus discontinued for the imbibition tests.
