Reduction of seedling growth is a consequence of seed deterioration. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of duration of seed aging on soybean seed germination characteristics. Experiment conducted as completely randomized design with 4 replications. The seeds of 'DPX' line of soybean with 15-16% moisture were incubated for 3, 7, 10, 14, 17 day at 40°C in sealed containers for ageing treatment and non aged seeds were considered as control. Results showed that rapid aging treatment has a significant effect on studied parameters. Germination percent (GP), means of daily germination (MDG), means time to germination (MTG), coefficient of velocity of germination (CVG) and germination index (GI) decrease significantly. Also, germination uniformity (GU) was affected by deterioration time. Abnormal seedling (ABS) percentage increased. Results shows that rapid aging experiment could be a useful test for determine soybean seed quality.

Loddo D., Ghaderi-Far F., Rastegar Z., Masin R. (2018): Base temperatures for germination of selected weed species in Iran. Plant Protect. Sci., 54: 60-66.Weed emergence models require the estimation of base temperature for germination (t b ) that was estimated for abutilon theophrasti, echinochloa crus-galli, amaranthus retroflexus, sorghum halepense, amaranthus albus, and amaranthus hybridus in Iran, to calibrate an existing model called AlertInf. Two statistical procedures were adopted: Model 1 -linear regression of germination rate and Model 2 -probit analysis. Model 1 provided lower t b values. abutilon theophrasti and a. hybridus presented lower t b values (about 4 and 8°C), while the remaining species had values above 10°C. Since the estimated values of t b were in agreement with those adopted for the Alertinf model in Italy, the first step was achieved to adapt AlertInf to Iranian conditions.