Relationship among some seed characters, laboratory germination and field emergence in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes differing in testa colour

Field emergence (FE) of 22 genotypes of chickpea, all having laboratory germination (LG) of more than 89%, ranged between 39–87%, indicating seed vigour differences between genotypes. Seed of the genotypes having white or beige testa had poor emergence (39–69%) than with brownor black testa (64–87%). Significant correlation of FE with water uptake (−0.438*), electrical conductivity of seed leachate (−0.870**), 100-seed weight (−0.865**) and proportion of seed coat (0.904**) indicated that seeds of genotypes/cultivarwith low vigour and possibly poor FE could be identified prior to sowing. In general poor vigour seeds imbibed water rapidly (white/beige coloured seeds). Kabuli cultivars imbibed water to its maximumcapacity within 4–8 hours while desi cultivars reached its maximum water imbibing capacity only after 16 hour of imbibition. For the initial first hour of imbibition the percent increase in water uptake of coloured desi genotypes ranged between 1.56% to 38.25% while in kabuli genotypes it ranged from 40.17% to 71.84%. Electrical conductivity (EC) showed the similar trend as of water absorption in kabuli and desi genotypes. Significant negative association was found between EC and FE in kabuli genotypes but this relationship was not significant in desi genotypes suggesting usefulness of EC in predicting FE of kabuli genotypes.