Hardseededness of local mungbean (vigna radiata) varieties

Abstract

Presence of hard seeds is an inferior character of some mungbean varieties. Hence efforts are made to identify factors affecting hard seed formation and to develop varieties with low percentage of hard seeds. This study aimed to determine the influence of seed size on seed hardness using three recommended local mungbean varieties, MI-5, Harsha and Ari. Seeds were categorized into three size groups; large, medium and small based on seed length and seed weight. MI-5 and Ari consisted with large and medium seeds while Harsha consisted of medium and small seeds. No significant differences of hardseededness were observed between different seed sizes within same variety. Seed hardness of medium seed category of three varieties found to be significantly different to each other. This experiment revealed that there is no significant effect of seed size on hardseededness and the high percentage of hard seeds is associated with variety Harsha is due to inherent character rather than seed size.