Department of Botany, Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University, Meerut
To see the importance of the pre-harvest environmental condition on the quality of seeds, summer crop and rain crop seeds of Phaseolus aureus cultivars were studied at different times from harvest. Pre-harvest condition has a profound effect on seed viability. In rain crop seeds, the vigour of seedling decreases with storage, while it is reverse in the case of summer crop. It may be due to high moisture content at harvest in rain crop seed. Kinetin pre-treatment partly retards seed deterioration especially radicle lengthwise in the rain crop seeds.
