The objective of this study was to investi-gate the variation of Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicusL.; CMV) seed quality after flowering. We tagged indivi-dual open flowers of CMV at the day of maximum flower-ing (11 May) in Seoul, Korea. Seed samples were har-vested serially at 15, 20, 25 and 30 days after flowering(DAF). To compare with dried seeds, non-dried seeds weretested immediately after harvest and the remaining seedswere placed at room temperature for 4 weeks. Seed length,mean germination time (MGT), germination speed (GS),germination performance index (GPI) and physical dor-mancy rate (PDR) were investigated. Seed length increasedto 2.6 m and 1000 seed weight reached up to 2.2 g until25 DAF. Seed moisture content dramatically decreased from20 to 25 DAF. Moisture content of non-dried seed (7.5%)was similar to that of dried seed (5.5%) at 25 DAF. Therate of seed viability reached up to 94% at 25 DAF. Incase of dried seed, GR increased up to 39% at 25 DAFwhereas GR of non-dried seed varied from 5 to 10%. GSand GPI of dried seed were significantly higher than thosedecreased since 20 DAF, whereas PDR of non-dried seedhas increased. GR, GS and GPI increased as PDR de-creased. Our results evidenced that PDR might be one ofmajor factor in variation of seed quality, of which develop-ment was completed at 25 DAF.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
REFERENCES