QUALITY OF STORED MELON (CUCUMIS MELO L.) SEEDS GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION REGIMES

Ecological diversity is the richest heritage of the countries that they wish to hand down the next generations. Landraces constitute an important group of biodiversity resources. Especially the effects of stress on seed quality of landraces known to be resistant to abiotic and biotic stress factors is an important issue. Majority of producers preserve their seeds and serious quality losses are encountered in long-term storage of these seeds. In this sense, seeds obtained from H??rs??z Ka????ran melon population grown under three different irrigation levels (50%, 100%, 150%) in ??anakkale province by ??iftci (2013) were stored for 5 years. In addition, new seeds (fresh seeds) were supplied from the experiments conducted under similar conditions with that previous study. Then, quality parameters of stored and fresh seeds were evaluated and compared. Seed color, germination rate, mean germination time, controlled deterioration test and electrical conductivity (EC), seed moisture, emergence rate and mean emergence time parameters were determined. According to the data obtained, germination and emergence rates were not affected on the other hand germination and emergence times were affected negatively by irrigation treatments. It was concluded that, H??rs??z Ka????ran melon genotype is able to maintain germination rate for both irrigation regimes, whether the seeds could be stored at certain seed moisture condition without significant loss of vigor.