Method of determining seed germination by using membrane potential of wheat seeds

Introduction. The germination of wheat seeds is an important indicator of their quality, used to calculate and adjust the seeding rate. It is necessary to take into account germination changes at the storage stage. The solution of this problem will be development of a method that will allow to determinate germination at any technological stage (at the stage of harvesting, storage, seeding).The aim of the article is to study the dependence of membrane potential on grain quality, to develop a method for determining the germination of wheat seeds based on their membrane potentials. Materials and Methods. The authors' review of research papers about methods of assessing the wheat seeds quality indicates the need for the development of highly sensitive methods of the germination test, which allow one to ensure the speed of measurement and obtain more accurate results for further use. An approach was developed on the basis of the review, which allows for solving the problem using the method based on the study of membrane potentials of wheat seeds. Results. In this article, the study of the dependence of wheat seeds membrane potential from their germination was conducted. The results of experiments confirmed that the value of the potential could be used as quality assessment parameter. The requirements and optimal conditions for conducting the experiment were determined. Discussion and Conclusion. The dependence of the wheat seeds membrane potential on their germination was established and the method for determining wheat seeds germination was developed. The implementation of this method will allow agricultural enterprises and farms to carry out the rapid assessment of wheat seeds germination at any technological stage (at the stage of harvesting, storage, seeding).