ASA Southern Regional Branch (February 5-7, 2017)

February 05 - 07, 2017

Seed vigor has a great potential to affect crop yields.  For cotton, different seed characteristics such as seed volume, mass, density, protein content, oil content, etc. can have a significant effect on seed quality, thereby affecting seedling vigor and crop performance.  Seedling emergence and growth can impact cotton yields in some situations. Thus, our study addressed the hypothesis that seed lot-specific characteristics would impact seedling vigor and early growth characteristics. The study was conducted with 6 different cultivars with known differences in seed characteristics, which were planted on three different dates (April 18, May 26, June 14) near Tifton, GA in 2016. Seed characteristics such as seed mass, volume, surface area, surface: volume ratio, protein content, and oil content were determined for each lot. Stand counts (number of plants per m row length), leaf area index, plant dry weight, plant height, mainstem nodes/plant and height: node ratio were measured at 21 and 35 days after planting for all planting dates. Also growth analysis was done by calculating Plant Growth Rate (PGR) and Net Assimilation Rate (NAR). Data were analyzed using JMP Pro 12. Initial results indicate that seedling vigor showed significant variation among lots with different seed characteristics.