QUANTIFYING THE LOSS OF SEED VIABILITY UNDER VARIOUS STORAGE-CONDITIONS

Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seeds were stored for several years at 4 degrees C in hermetically sealed containers in a low-oxygen atmosphere. With another batch of seeds, accelerated aging was induced by storing the seeds for 30 days at 12, 22, or 37 degrees C. In all cases, a decrease in germination percentage was accompanied by an enhancement of both delayed luminescence and electrolyte leakage from the seeds. Irrespective of the storage regime, the initial unimodal distribution of seeds by a delayed luminescence level was transformed during storage into a multimodal one, with three major components corresponding to vigorous, nonvigorous, and dead seeds. It is assumed that seed aging is a stepwise, rather than gradual, transition from the viable to the nonviable state through an intermediate metastable state, which has been detected here for the first time. The dynamics of the structural transitions during seed aging can be monitored by measuring the intensity of the delayed luminescence of seeds.