Performance of cotton cloth substrates in laboratory sorghum seeds germination tests

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) seed germination tests were conducted at Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) laboratories, Morogoro, Tanzania. The aim of this study was to investigate the suitability of cotton cloth substrates in laboratory seed germination tests. Sorghum seed samples for this study were collected from three agro-ecological zones of Lake, Central and Eastern represented by Mwanza, Dodoma and Morogoro regions of Tanzania respectively. Cotton cloth substrates were used as treatments; single layer cotton cloth substrates (SLCCS), double layer cotton cloth substrates (DLCCS), and both single and double layer cotton cloth substrates washed and sterilized at 1210C for 15 minutes before re-use. ISTA paper was included as control. The germination results were 82.5%, 82.4%, 82.4%, 82.1% and 82.0% for DLCCS, ISTA paper, SLCCS, re-used DLCCS and re-used SLCCS, respectively. There was no significant (P<0.01) difference in all substrates used in this study. Therefore, cotton cloth substrates were found as suitable as International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) papers for conducting sorghum seed germination tests in the laboratory. Since cotton cloth substrates are locally manufactured they could replace ISTA papers which must be imported. Further work however, is required to standardize this cotton cloth substrate, prepare protocol or standard operating procedures before adopting them for TOSCI routine laboratory sorghum seed germination testing.

Author(s): Delphina P. Mamiroa*, Gaspar H. Clementa, John I. Msemwab and Matengia M. Swaib

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