Acetic Acid Treatment: Relieving Dormancy and Promoting Germination of Rice Seed

News source: Kaohsiung District Agricultural Improvement Station, Taiwan, ROC
For further information: cwwu@mail.kdais.gov.tw, 2003-08-01

Reducing Germination during Wet Harvest Season

Rains and typhoons are prevalent during the rice harvest period in Taiwan. This condition causes germination on grain panicles and decreases rice yield and quality.

Selection of Dormant Varieties

To reduce the damages, dormant varieties were selected from breeding materials and then evaluated. These dormant seeds were not able to generate uniform rice seedlings when used for growing seedlings in the second cropping season

Treating Dormant Seeds with Acetic Acid

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Generally, farmers keep rice seeds under room air temperature for 2-3 weeks to relieve seed dormancy. However, it becomes too late to transplant the seedlings with this method. In this study, treating the dormant seeds with 50mM acetic acid for 24 h improved germination capacity by above 90% and produced uniform seedlings.

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