SEED QUALITY OF SELECTED VEGETABLE SPECIES ON THE POLISH MARKET

In the years 2001-2003 the seed quality of 108 samples of white head cabbage, garden carrot, red beet, onion, cucumber, tomato, radish, lettuce, common bean and garden pea were checked. They came from 3 Polish seed companies and 1 foreign one operating on the Polish market. It was found out that 22.2% of the examined seed samples did not meet the standards concerning germination capacity. The worst were seeds of lettuce and head cabbage. Their samples did not meet the germination capacity standards in 55.5% and 41.7%, respectively. The best quality was found for seeds of red beet and cucumbers - all their tested samples met the germination capacity standards. The highest number of samples, which did not meet the standards, came from the company number 2, the smallest - from the company number 4. All tested seed samples met the purity standards

Some agricultural aspects of seed longevity (literature review)

There has been a vast and numerous literature concerning seed longevity. Most of these works however has focused solely on theoretical and biological aspects of this problem. Some works although deal with practical problems of seed storage. vigour or deterioration. have had relatively little connection with agricultural crops. practical farming or gardening. Therefore, there has been a need to look at this problem from the seednian's and farmer's point of view. The paper comments on how long seeds of agricultural crops species can keep their longevity, how long it is economically reasonable to store them. the effect of the seeds chemical composition on their longevity, how seeds storage conditions can be modified in order to eventually improve their longevity and environment circumstances influence on the final seed longevity. The paper contains a synthetic summary of expected seed longevity of the most important agricultural species and many examples of long longevity of agricultural species

INDEXES OF TOLERANCE OF TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) SEEDS FOR GERMINATION AT LOW TEMPERATURES

Sixteen tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cultivars from Poland and China were tested on their seed tolerance to germinate at low temperatures: 15 degree and 10 degree. Their responses were evaluated based on 4 characters: germination energy, germination capacity, maximum germination and fresh weight of 100 normal seedlings, calculated then into 6 different indexes. All of proposed indexes include the optimal temperature of germination (20 degree). There is a possibility to use the suggested indexes to evaluate seed tolerance of various tomato cultivars to germinate at low temperatures. The tested low temperatures decreased the germination energy of the seeds of the tested tomato cultivars. Three cultivars were found with a satisfactory germination at 15 degree, but at 10 degree the germination of all tested cultivars was poor. The biggest tolerances of seeds to germinate at 15 degree was found for the cultivars: 'Kibic', 'Maliniak' and 'Etna F1', the smallest - for the cultivars: 'Bai Guo Qiang Feng' and 'Sheng Li 919'. The biggest tolerances of seeds to germinate at 10 degree was found for the cultivars: 'Batory F1' and 'Korsarz', whereas the smallest - for the cultivars: 'Etna F1', 'Poranek', 'Maliniak', 'Kora', 'Bursztyn', 'Sheng Li 919', 'Ju Huang 83-3' and 'Bai Guo Qiang Feng'