Effect of Mechanical Damage on Soybean Germination

Abstract

The physical and mechanical characteristics of soybean were studied in this study. The effects of grain damage on soybean increase if the damaged seed is stored, as has often to be done in practice. During storage, harvesting and threshing the mechanically damaged seed loses its germination capacity more rapidly than the undamaged seed, and as a result the seedling percentage decreases. Therefore, in this research introduced the effects of impact velocities (IV), number of impact loadings (NL), and time (T) on percentage of grain damage and percentage of loss in germination to soybean seeds. The result showed significant influenced percentage of grain damage and percentage of loss in germination. As the extent of grain damage increased, capability of germination decreased. Increasing the impact velocities from 12.4 to 22 m/s (IV1=12.4, IV2=16, IV3=22 ms-1) and number of impact loading from 1 to 3 times (NL1: one brunt, NL2: two brunt and NL3: three brunt) and time to 3 month (T1: when impact loading to seed, T2: after 45 days and T3: after 3 months) caused an increase in percentage of grain damage from 2.76 to 24.29% and increase in percentage of loss in germination from 28 to 96, respectively