Effect of soaking condition and temperature on imbibition rate of maize and chickpea seeds

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of priming temperature and soaking condition on water absorption pattern of maize (variety BARI hybrid maize-5) and chickpea (BARI chola-5) seeds. Two soaking conditions viz., (1) aerobic and (2) anaerobic and three priming temperature levels viz., (1) 15 (2) 25 and (3) 31°C (ambient) were used in the experiment. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. BARI hybrid maize-5 and BARI chola-5 seeds absorbed water very rapidly for up to 6 h both in aerobic and anaerobic conditions at all the levels of temperatures. Thereafter a little change in absorption rate was found for up to 30 h in maize and 24 h in chickpea seeds while a slow increase was further notices for up to 70 h for both the seeds under all the environmental conditions with a little higher rate at aerobic environment than the anaerobic environment. It is observed that visible germination occurred in maize during 30 to 40 h and in chickpea during 24 to 30 h of imbibition. The present study revealed that imbibition period for both maize and chickpea seed increased with increasing temperature and the rate of water absorption was always higher in anaerobic condition than the aerobic condition. The present study concludes that optimum duration of soaking for maize and chickpea seeds at 31, 25 and 15°C of soaking temperature could be 6, 9 and 18 h, respectively. © 2011 Academic Journals Inc.