Qualidade fisiológica de sementes de milho em função do formato e da época da colheita

Abstract

The corn (Zea mays L.) is a plant of the Poaceae family, cultivated in many regions around the world. In order to be guaranteed the crop yeld, it is necessary to be produced high-quality seeds. One of the main factors associated with high physiological quality is the time in which the seeds are harvested. Given the above, the present study aims to evaluate the physiological quality of corn seeds, in function of the size and the harvest season. The place used for the seeds collection was a private property located in the municipality of Arroio do Padre-RS, in a commercial maize crop. The variety grown and collected on this site was the BRS 4157 Sol-da-Manhã. The harvesting process occurred in nine different seasons with spaces from three to four days between harvests. After the harvesting process, the seeds were classified into two different formats: flat and round. As for standardizing the experimental units, the spikes were marked at the same level of maturity stage, and, for each harvest, 10 spikes were collected for each repetition. The evaluations were: moisture, verification of the black tip of 100 seeds, germination, accelerated aging, cold test and electrical conductivity. Based on the results, we reached the following conclusions: Corn seeds harvested near the physiological maturity are not different in quality, independent from the size. The best time for the corn harvest is when the seed moisture is between 28 and 33% of moisture. In case of delay in harvest, the round seeds have a lower physiological quality. The loss of seed moisture on the spike in the field is less than 0,6pp.hour-1.