Effect of Packaging Materials and Storage Condition on Soybean Germination and Seedling Vigour in Makurdi

Studies were carried out on seeds of TGx-1448-2E and TGx-1951-3F in a 2×3 and 2×2 factorials experiment in a complete randomized designed replicated three times for packaging materials and storage conditions, respectively. The experiment was conducted at the Plant Breeding and Seed Science Laboratory, University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Packaging materials used were paper, cloth and polyethylene bags and the storage conditions were cold at 15EC and ambient at 32EC for 6 months. Germination test was carried out according to the standard procedure of International Seed Testing Association at 5 and 8 days after planting. Twenty five intact seeds were placed in petridishes containing double layered rolled filter paper. Petri-dishes were moistened everyday with distilled water and seeds were allowed to germinate. Data were obtained from five normal seedlings for root, shoot and seedling lengths. Seedling dry weight was determined after sun drying to a constant weight and weighed by an electronic balance. Data was subjected to analysis of variance using the Genstat Release 7.2 software. Significant treatment means were separated using LSD at 5% probability. Results indicated that packaging materials did not influence germination, seedling vigour of soybean while, cold storage conditions were significantly different for germination percentage, seedling dry weight however, seedling vigor was not significant. Cold storage had higher germination percentage and seedling dry matter but this did not translate to higher seedling vigour. Varieties performed differently under cold storage.