Correlation of Low Seed Quality with Growing Environment of Carrot

Abstract

Two surveys were conducted to evaluate the problem of low germination of carrot ( Daucus carota L.) seed grown in the Columbia Basin area of Washington and Oregon. Analyses of weather data via a heat unit model demonstrated that the major difference in growing environment was the number of heat units (10C base) occurring before or during early bloom. The correlation between pre-bloom period heat units (May + June) and final percent germinability of seed lots from survey number one resulted in an r 2 of 0.42 with the probability of F > 0.12. The second survey showed that the greatest reason for low seed germination among seed lots in 1984 was an increased percentage of abnormal germinants compared to 1983. This indicates that the seed germination problem in carrots may be due to seed being harvested at an immature stage, which resulted in low seed germination percentage.