Moisture induced changes of volume and density of some cereal seeds

The effect of wetting in the density and volume of seeds of barley, rye and two cultivars of wheat was determined. Two levels of wetting were used: (i) 6 h wetting close to the end of imbibition; (ii) 24 h wetting close to the beginning of germination. The experimental results show that the variability of the seeds' volume and density in all tested states can be well described by the Gaussian distribution. The changes of the seed's volume and the seed's density caused by wetting can be then easily expressed via the changes of the distribution parameters. The increase in the seed's density and the seed's volume was the main effect of the wetting, but the level of the observed changes was variable for different crops and different degrees of wetting. Density increase was observed mainly in the case of imbibition, whereas longer wetting was connected mainly with changes of the seed's volume.