Estudo de características morfofisiológicas de sementes de milho obtidas por imagem

Abstract

Corn (Zea Mays L.) is the most produced crop in the Brazilian semiarid region and the second largest in the country. The use of high-quality seeds is essential to optimize production, and seed analysis by images is a promising alternative that offers fast, accurate, and low-cost results. This study aimed to study the morphophysiological characteristics of corn seeds obtained by images. Fifty-three corn genotypes were evaluated in three different experiments in 2023: (i) Obtaining images of the seeds to extract morphological variables (area, perimeter, diameter, and eccentricity); (ii) Germination test in the laboratory, with variables evaluated on the 4th and 7th day after the start of the test; and (iii) Field experiment to obtain productivity. Experiments “i” and “ii” were conducted in the laboratory of the Federal University of Sergipe -UFS, while experiment “iii” was conducted in the experimental field of EMBRAPA Semiárido, both in the municipalities of Nossa Senhora da Glória - SE. The data were subjected to analysis of variance, grouping by the Scott-Knott method and GT Biplot analysis. With the results of the analysis of variance, genetic variability was observed between the treatments in the three experiments. The Scott-Knott grouping distributes the materials into distinct groups for the germination and eccentricity variables. Eccentricity correlated positively with productivity, while the diameter, area and perimeter variables were positioned in opposite directions. It is concluded that image analysis is an efficient tool to estimate the vigor of corn seeds, allowing the selection of superior genotypes quickly and accurately.