Material. Seeds of the cucumber, tomato, and cabbage, from one to ten years old.

Apparatus. Sprouting-chamber, Geneva seed-tester.

It is common knowledge that certain seeds lose their vitality with age. This varies with the variety of seed, the climate, the humidity, and other conditions.

1. Secure one hundred seeds each of the cucumber, tomato, and cabbage, one year old, two years old, three years old, four years old, five years old, six years old, seven years old, eight years old, nine years old, and ten years old, and place them in a Geneva seed-tester, the same as in Exercise II. Carry the germination test seven days and tabulate your results.

2. From your results, plot a curve showing the decrease in the vitality due to the age of the seed. At what age does the greatest vitality occur in each kind of seed? How do you account for this? Discuss the age limit of the different seeds.

Table Of Results

Note. Different-colored inks may be used to represent the different seeds; for example, black = cucumber, red = tomato, green = cabbage.

Seed Vitality Limited By Age. Student's Notes And Report. How To Plot The Curve

nt

100 90

80

70 00

50 40 30

20

10 0

0

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Age