Methodological adjustments to the tetrazolium test in rice seeds

Reducing the execution time of the tetrazolium test is important because it is used for making decisions during the preharvest and this test takes approximately 24 h. Thus, the goal of this research was to study preconditioning and staining periods and concentration of tetrazolium salt, in order to reduce the evaluation time of rice seed viability by tetrazolium test. Three independent experiments were conducted. In the first and second experiments, six rice seed lots from the BR Irga 424 cultivar were used. In the first experiment, different concentrations of tetrazolium salt (0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1 %) and staining times (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 h) were evaluated. In the second one, different hydration periods (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 h) at two temperatures (35 and 40 degrees C) were tested. In the third one, eight seed lots from the same cultivar were used, and the effectiveness of the modified tetrazolium test in the evaluation of rice seed viability was assesed. It is possible to carried out the tetrazolium test on rice using the hydration of peeled seeds for 1 h at 40 degrees C and staining for 1 h with a 0.25% salt concentration.