Atleast twenty seeds have to test for each treatment. Individual Seeds have to place into containers holding 50 mL of distilled water and left to soak for 30, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes in a germination chamber set to a constant temperature of 25°C. The minimum time taken for the soaking of 30 minutes was adopted by the same authors and Amaral and peske [1], Fernandes et al. [2], and Matos [3] who concluded that the period of 30 minutes of soaking is more effective to estimate the germination of the seeds. After each period, the conductivity of the soak solution was immediately tested with a benchtop EC meter precise to +/−1% (Quimis). Readings were expressed as μS·cm−1/g−1 seed [4].

1. A. S. Amaral and S. T. Peske, “Exudate pH to estimate, in 30 minutes seed viability of soybeans,” Journal of seeds, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 85–92, 1984.

2. E. J. Fernandes, R. Sader, and N. M. Carvalho, “seed viability beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) estimated by the pH of the exudate,” in Congress Brazil's Seeds, Gramado, Brazil, 1987.

3. J. M. M. Matos, Evaluation of pH test on exudate check feasibility of forest seeds, dissertation, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil, 2009.

4. F. C. Krzyzanowski and R. D. Vieira, “Electrical conductivity test,” in Seed Vigor: Concepts and Tests, F. C. Krzyzanowski, R. D. Vieira, and J. B. France Neto, Eds., pp. 4.1–4.26, Abrates, London, UK, 1999.

Thank you Dr. Sanjoy Kumar Bordolui for sharing your experience.

Dear Arezoo,

You can measure specific conductivity by following the below-mentioned protocol:

Specific conductivity: The measurement of electrolyte leakage is not performed correctly for dry seeds. The seeds should be imbibed in water for 24 h at room temperature. After imbibition, the initial conductance (C0) of the leakage can be measured correctly. Next, the electrolyte solutions are removed; the seeds are placed in the water again and boiled at 100°C for 10 min. After 24 h, their conductivity is measured again (C1). The percentage of electrolyte leakage is calculated from the formula: C0/(C0+C1)×100%.

Thank you Dr. Balram Sahu for sharing your experience. I did only this method ""The seeds should be imbibed in water for 24 h at room temperature"". I But I had never done the second part "" boiling at 100 100°C for 10 min. That's a great help.

The development of tests to evaluate the physiological quality of seeds, as well as the standardization of these is essential for the establishment of an efficient quality control [8]. One of the main requirements for the seed vigor refers to obtain reliable results in a relatively short period of time, allowing the speed of decision making especially as regards the operations of collection, processing, and marketing [9]. The literature indicates that rapid tests are most studied early events related to the deterioration of the sequence proposed by Delouche and Baskin [10] as the degradation of cell membranes and reduced activity, and biosynthetic respiratory [9]. The measurement of electrical conductivity through the electrolyte amount released by soaking seeds in water has been applied by the individual method where each seed is a sample or more often, a sample of seed representative of a population (mass method). For this case, the results represent the average conductivity of a group of seeds, may a small amount of dead seeds affect the conductivity of a batch with many high-quality seed generating a read underestimated. To minimize this problem, we recommend choosing the seeds, excluding the damaged seeds.

The electrical conductivity is based on the principle that the deterioration process is the leaching of the cells of seeds soaked in water due to loss of integrity of cellular systems. Thus, low conductivity means a high-quality seed and high conductivity, that is, greater output seed leachate, suggests that less force [11].

The electrical conductivity is not yet widely used in Brazil, its use is restricted to activities related to research (Krzyzanowski et al., 1991). There are common jobs using this test to determine the physiological quality of tree seeds. However, it is a promising vigor test for possible standardization of the methodology, at least within a species. However, it is a promising vigor test for possible standardization of the methodology, at least within a species. However, there are factors which influence the conductivity values as the size, the initial water content, temperature and time of soaking, the number of seeds per sample, and genotype [12].

Five treatments were carried out to test the efficiency of the conductivity test as a means of evaluating the viability of freshly collected K. coriacea Mart. seeds.

Five runs of 20 seeds were tested for each treatment. Seeds were individually placed into containers holding 50 mL of distilled water and left to soak for 30, 90, 120, 180, and 240 minutes in a germination chamber set to a constant temperature of 25°C. The minimum time taken for the soaking of 30 minutes was adopted by the same authors and Amaral and peske [13], Fernandes et al. [14], and Matos [1] who concluded that the period of 30 minutes of soaking is more effective to estimate the germination of the seeds. After each period, the conductivity of the soak solution was immediately tested with a benchtop EC meter precise to +/−1% (Quimis). Readings were expressed as μS·cm−1/g−1 seed [15].

Data thus obtained were subjected to analysis of variance with partitioning into orthogonal polynomials for analysis of the effect of soaking times on electrical conductivity.

Article Electrical Conductivity Testing as Applied to the Assessment...