Qualidade de sementes de girassol no beneficiamento

Abstract

Processing is very important in seed production of crops such as sunflower, since it allows improving lot quality. Seed quality verification is required during all stages of the process to ensure the excellence of the procedure. A test was carried out with two sunflower seeds lots of the hybrid Hélio-250, produced in 2010, to evaluate the physical, physiological and health quality of sunflower seeds during the processing. We collect samples from ten sampling points during processing, at regular times in the seeds flow, in the operations of reception, pre-cleaning, and sorting by size and density. We analyzed the following variables: moisture content, purity, weight of 1,000 seeds, cultural value, germination percentage, first count of germination, emergence, speed index of emergence, accelerated aging, electrical conductivity, seed health, and tetrazolium (vigor and viability) tests. We adapted three methods to evaluate the mechanical damage in sunflower seeds during processing: fast green dye, radiographic images and tetrazolium test. None of the evaluated operations affected negatively the lots quality. Processing is effective in classifying and improving physical and physiological quality of sunflower seeds lots. Thus, sorting by density is an essential step in this process. The processing itself does not change the health quality of seed lots of hybrid sunflower Hélio-250.