Why detect seed maturity?

The  stage  of  seed maturity  plays  an  important  role  in  relation  to seed quality.  Less  ripe  seeds are generally of much  lower quality. The quality of  the seeds  is also hugely  inluential on  the  resulting quality  of  the  plant.  A  good  batch  of  seeds  shows  homogeneous seed ripeness, while a batch which shows more variation in ripeness is usually of much lower quality.

Through the use of a maturity provision it is possible to measure the ripeness of the seeds, and thereby harvest the seeds at the most optimum period.

By assessing the maturity of the seeds the seed producer can anticipate the possible negative inluences of, for example, unfavourable climatic circumstances. The variation in seed ripeness also gives important information on quality. This information is critical for planning a number of logistical processes, such as the moment of transport to the location where cleaning and further processing of the seeds takes place, and when the sorting (the removal of immature seeds) can occur. Harvesting at the optimum moment leads to fewer losses as a result of poor seed quality and the information received from the Seedanalyser on the variation in seed ripeness heightens the eficiency of further processing, directly preventing possible inancial losses for the grower.

Fluorescence

Chlorophyll has the property of luorescence, in that after it is excited it emits a speciic and unique wave length. This chlorophyll luorescence for seeds has been developed at plant research international (PRI), part of Wageningen UR. The technique is a very sensitive, fast, non-destructive method for measuring chlorophyll in seeds. Scientiically it has been shown that chlorophyll luorescence (CF) can be used as an effective indicator of seed ripeness: as the quantity of chlorophyll decreases during seed maturation ripe seeds contain smaller quantities of chlorophyll than immature seeds.

Maturity provision of seeds with the Seedanalyser

Maturity provisions with the Seedanalyser are simply and fast. Clean seed monsters of the production ield are put in a glass Petri dish.

The seeds are excited and the chlorophyll quality of the seeds is measured. The Seedanalyser performs this measurement in less than a minute. The CF-signal corresponds with the ripeness of the seeds. Ripe seed gives low luorescence values, and immature seeds give values of a higher luorescence. These results can be used in a seed ripeness report and as an indicator of quality, import and/or export control.

The Seedanalyser has been developed within project in cooperation with plant research international and the seed companies. This collaboration has resulted in a compact measuring device that can be used in laboratories, seed processing companies and on seed production locations.

For commercial information