This experiment was carried out at the Seed Analysis Laboratory of the Plant Production Department of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP/Botucatu) with the purpose to evaluate different periods of accelerated aging on ion and soluble protein leakage in seed quality. Corn seeds of the BR 3123 cultivar were put in a gerbox with 40mL distilled water at 42°C to periods of zero, 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 and 166 hours. After aging, part of these seeds was submitted to a germination test with 4 replicates for each period, and count of normal seedlings was made on the 4th day after. Another part of these seeds was soaked in 75mL distilled water for 24 hours at 25ºC and electrical conductivity (µS.cm-1.g-1), ions determination (mg.mL-1.g of seed-1) and total soluble protein leakage (µprotein.g-1.mL-1) was determined in the solution. It was verified that. Potassium leakage was higher than Ca, Zn, Mn, Cu, Fe and Mg ions.
Zea mays; germination; electrical conductivity
