Environ Exp Biol (2016) 14: 9–14

Biological productivity and composition of groundnut in relation to seed size

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of seed size on seedling emergence, biological yield and proximate composition of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Matured seeds were graded into three different seed sizes with respect to length. The large seeds were 1.3 to 1.5 cm, medium seeds 1.1 to 1.25 cm and small seeds were equal to or less than 0.83 cm in legth. At 10 days after planting, large and medium seed sizes had higher percentage emergence, 54 and 42%, respectively, when compared with small size seeds with 10% emergence. Growth characteristics such as plant height and number of leaves were higher in plants from relatively larger seeds at various crop stages. Groundnut plants grown from large seed reached their 50% flowering 3 to 5 days earlier than plants grown from medium and small seed sizes. The results of yield components (seed yield and harvest index) followed a similar pattern to that of growth characters. Composition of the seeds of plants grown from large seeds showed significantly higher moisture (6.82%) ash (2.72%), fibre (4.66%) and carbohydrate content (10.42%) when compared to seeds harvested from plants established from other seed sizes. Seeds of plants grown from seeds with small size had significantly higher protein (30.11%) and fat (49.10%) when compared to seeds harvested from plants grown from medium and large seeds. The results of this study revealed that large seed size is associated with improved growth and seed yield with high ercontents of ash, fibre and carbohydrates, but with lower protein and fat.