Dear Dr. Sherman Kamara,

To identify the processes leading to rapid germination in grains, you should use digital images acquired by scanner and processed by imaging technology. I have attached a file with some information about it.

With the besh wishes,

Angel

Dear Dr. Sherman Kamara,

To identify the processes leading to rapid germination in grains, you should use digital images acquired by scanner and processed by imaging technology. I have attached a file with some information about it.

With the besh wishes,

Angel

Thank you very much Sir. This is very helpful. 

Depending on the grain and the amount you are testing another method which has been used is the measurement of atmospheric gasses.  The seed is placed in a sealed container and based either on direct gas quantification or measurements of gas production such as water displacement  or titration an example of titration is as follows.  Carbon dioxide will be given off due to respiration, (as the seed cannot photosynthesize without light/chlorophyll the uptake of CO2 by the seed should not be a problem during the beginning stages of germination).  The carbon dioxide can then be measured by titration in an aqueous solution.  This would also be likely to work with electronic carbon dioxide meters whether as a gas or solution.

A benefit of this method as compared to visual measurements is that germination can be detected prior to visible growth and the seed does not need to be manipulated repeatedly

Dear Joseph,

I am truly grateful that you sent this question to me but in all honesty I have no experience in this field of study. It is true I have grown gardens but for that I bought seedlings. Hence I can really not be of service but to maybe ask why is this necessary? Would some call this genetic engineering? 

Is the attempt to rush the germination due to environments these plants are going to be grown in?

I am sorry,

Douglas

Dear Douglas R. Daugherty,

We use germination in our work as a food processing techniques that enhance the release to bioactive compounds of nutraceutical value (i.e., have both food and health benefits). The process is very straight forward physiological manipulation of seeds for man's use as food, similar to micobial manupulation during fermentation.

Dear Michael Beleski,

Thank you very much for reminding me of the basic principle. I am familiar with a few physiological models based on CO2 monitoring. Your contribution is very helpful. I am grateful...

If you like to monitor processes happening before radicle protrusion, you can measure oxygen consumption rate of individual seeds using the Q2 machine.

We use the Germinator method in our study on seed vigour in which we need to identify small differences in germination speed of a population (treated seed samples). We germinate the seeds on blue filter paper (for contrast with the protruding radicle) and make very frequent images with a SLR camera. The images are processed with Image J software to count the frequency of germinated and non-germinated seeds. Next the data are imported in an Excel sheet to calculate germination curves and statistics. The method allows to screen hundreds of samples simultaneously. The method has been published and is free to download: http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Chair-groups/Plant-Sciences/Laboratory-of-Plant-Physiology/Wageningen-Seed-Lab/Resources/Germinator.htm

See also: Joosen RVL, Kodde J, Willems LAJ, Ligterink W, Plas LHWvd and Hilhorst HWM (2010) Germinator: a software package for high-throughput scoring and curve fitting of Arabidopsis seed germination. The Plant Journal 62: 148-159.

http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Chair-groups/Plant-Sciences/Laboratory-of-Plant-Physiology/Wageningen-Seed-Lab/Resources/Germinator.htm

http://www.astec-global.com/q2-technology

http://www.ajofai.info/Abstract/Using%20the%20single%20seed%20oxygen%20consumption%20measurement%20as%20a%20method%20of%20determination%20of%20different%20seed%20quality%20parameters%20for%20commercial%20tomato%20seed%20samples.pdf

I agree with Steven Groot. Following respiration will give you a good idea the degree of metabolic activity prior to radicle emergence - at this point you also see a spike in respiration.

Using the germinator system is also useful for determining germination rate. It is relatively cheap to set up, you just need to adapt the settings to you particular species.