Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination

The ability to reliably deliver germinable seeds to site through conventional mechanised seeding techniques is a major challenge for many native grass species where seed appendages cause issues with flowability. This study successfully developed an effective acid-digestion technique to delicately re...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stevens, J., Chivers, I., Symons, D., Dixon, Kingsley
Format: Journal Article
Published: International Seed Testing Association 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40956
_version_ 1848756011009048576
author Stevens, J.
Chivers, I.
Symons, D.
Dixon, Kingsley
author_facet Stevens, J.
Chivers, I.
Symons, D.
Dixon, Kingsley
author_sort Stevens, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The ability to reliably deliver germinable seeds to site through conventional mechanised seeding techniques is a major challenge for many native grass species where seed appendages cause issues with flowability. This study successfully developed an effective acid-digestion technique to delicately remove caryopses of four Australian native grass species from surrounding structures without reducing germination performance. The removal of appendages makes seed handling more effective and aids accurate placement of the seed in the soil/growth medium. Furthermore, in one species (Microlaena stipoides) germination after acid treatment improved by 25%, the result of removing germination inhibiting mechanisms. The technique developed is readily scale-able making it an ideal seed treatment to assist in improving seed handling and increasing seed use efficiency of some native grass species in broad-scale restoration programmes.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:05:24Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-40956
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:05:24Z
publishDate 2015
publisher International Seed Testing Association
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-409562017-09-13T14:27:27Z Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination Stevens, J. Chivers, I. Symons, D. Dixon, Kingsley The ability to reliably deliver germinable seeds to site through conventional mechanised seeding techniques is a major challenge for many native grass species where seed appendages cause issues with flowability. This study successfully developed an effective acid-digestion technique to delicately remove caryopses of four Australian native grass species from surrounding structures without reducing germination performance. The removal of appendages makes seed handling more effective and aids accurate placement of the seed in the soil/growth medium. Furthermore, in one species (Microlaena stipoides) germination after acid treatment improved by 25%, the result of removing germination inhibiting mechanisms. The technique developed is readily scale-able making it an ideal seed treatment to assist in improving seed handling and increasing seed use efficiency of some native grass species in broad-scale restoration programmes. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40956 10.15258/sst.2015.43.2.19 International Seed Testing Association restricted
spellingShingle Stevens, J.
Chivers, I.
Symons, D.
Dixon, Kingsley
Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title_full Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title_fullStr Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title_full_unstemmed Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title_short Acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
title_sort acid-digestion improves native grass seed handling and germination
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40956