Title : Impact of artificial aging on quality of maize (Zea mays L.) seeds.
Abstract :The quality of maize grains was markedly affected by critical storage conditions, such as high relative humidity and high temperature. This experiment was performed to estimate quality of maize seeds (Zea mays L.) after ageing during 2020 season. Two-factorial experiment was performed with completely randomized design with three replications, using four maize hybrids (SC10, SC132, TWC360 and TWC368) and four levels of accelerated ageing (non-aged, artificially aged for 2, 4 and 6 days at 45o C temperature and 95% relative humidity). Germination percentage, mean germination time, electrical conductivity, shoot and root lengths, seedling dry weight, seedling vigor index, protein content, oil content, and activity of catalase and peroxidase enzymes were measured. The results showed that, responses of varied parameters to aging periods were significantly different in all traits. When aging time increased, there was a depression in all traits except for mean germination time and electrical conductivity which were increased. In addition, the studied traits were significantly different due to diverse maize hybrids. TWC368 was superior compared with other hybrids in most of the measured traits