School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2025
Abstract
Germination rates of commercial lots of hemp have been highly variable, resulting in poor stand establishment. Germination rates in some seed lots have decreased by 50% after only 1 year of storage. The objective of this trial was to investigate the impact of seed storage conditions on seed germination over time. Industrial hemp (IH) seeds (cv. NWG2730) were harvested from the field. The seeds were cleaned, sorted, and dried to specific moisture contents (MC) 6%, 8%, 10%, and 14%. Seeds were subdivided, placed in hermetically sealed packets, and stored at temperatures of −20°C, 4°C, 10°C, or 21°C for 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. At each increment, seeds were removed from storage and sterilized using hot water and bleach treatment, and subjected to germination tests. A tetrazolium test (1% solution on a sub-sample of seeds [n = 50]) at 3 and 24 months was conducted. Results indicated an interaction between seed MC and storage temperature over time. At higher MCs (10% and 14%), germination decreased over time with the decline being more rapid at warmer temperatures. For viability, a similar trend occurred with a combination of higher temperature and MC resulting in lower seed viability. These results suggest that optimal storage conditions for intermediate storage of IH seed should focus primarily on keeping seed moisture at < 8% and storing seeds at 4°C to10°C. Our data suggest that the variability in germination of commercial hemp seed lots may in part be attributed to loss of seed viability as a result of less-than-ideal storage conditions.
Recommended Citation
Cockson, Paul, Andrea Webb, Natalia Martinez‐Ochoa, Lindsey Moffitt, Robert Pearce, and Manohar Chakrabarti. "Impact of seed moisture and temperature on hemp seed germination." Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment 8, no. 2 (2025): e70129. https://doi.org/10.1002/agg2.70129
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment
DOI
10.1002/agg2.70129
Comments
© 2025 The Author(s). Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Crop Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.