Abstract
Seeds of cruciferous vegetables including Brassica and Raphanus have more or less dormancy after harvest. When dormant seeds are stored in either dry or wet condition, the removal of dormancy is delayed as compared with air-dry condition. The effect of desiccation and moistening of seeds during storage is not to“induce”or“deepen”dormancy, but only to“prolong”or“maintain”it. The effect of desiccation and moistening is temporary in most species but semipermanent in Brassica japonica. In Brassica napus, as an exception, the removal of dormancy is hastened by dry storage. It is imagined that each species has its own optimum humidity for the removal of seed dormancy. In most species the optimum might be in air-dry condition, but in B. napus in more desiccated one. From the data of interspecific and intergeneric hybrid seeds, the prolongation phenomenon is genetical and presumably due to the action of multiple genes.
