THE EFFECT OF INITIAL SIZE ON THE GERMINATION OF PELLETED BROCCOLI SEEDS

摘要

An experimental study of broccoli (Brassica oleraceae, var. Italica) seed pelleting was conducted in a 143 mm diameter conventional spouted bed granulator. The influence of initial seed size and seed condition (naked and pelleted seed) on germination is discussed. The experiments followed a mixed design of two and three factors, and the results were analyzed using response surface methodology. The pelleting process was carried out with broccoli seeds sorted by size using sieves with openings of 2.00, 1.68 and 1.48 mm. The naked and pelleted seeds for each size class were evaluated considering the germination capacity. The results did not show significant differences in germination capacity between pelleted and non-pelleted seeds for seeds of the same size class. Naked and pelleted seeds with initial sizes larger than 1.68 mm were the most representative and displayed the highest physiological quality.