Abstract

Biophysical methods for seeds’ quality control, like micro-focus X-ray, have shown greater efficacy compared to standard morphometric methods, as they are more informative, rapid, and easy to use. This study was conducted during 2017-2018 at Federal Scientific Vegetable Center in Moscow region, Russia using micro-focus radiography, to analyze, identify and classify the characteristic defects and deficiencies in the internal structure of seeds of spinach, cucumber, and peas. With X-ray analysis we were able to assess normal (full-value) seeds, which also germinated during our germination analysis, and thus showing that this method can be effective in quality assessment. In addition, statistical analysis of the experimental data showed that the results of visual x-ray analysis coincided with the data of laboratory germination of seeds, the strength of this correlation was estimated by the correlation coefficient: from r = 0.78 (spinach) to r = 0.88 (peas). Therefore, the microfocus X-ray method is quite effective in analyzing the quality of seeds and compares favorably with the standard method in terms of greater informative value, speed and ease of execution, and the safety of the analyzed seed samples. The prospect of this work is the full automation of the process of X-ray analysis of the internal structure of seeds in consideration to the morpho-biological significance.