The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of drying methods during maturation of velvet bean seeds on their development and physiological quality. In the first experiment, inflorescences were tagged at the beginning of flowering and harvests started two weeks later; in the second experiment, harvests started 40 days after 50% flowering. In both experiments harvests were made at regular intervals until the pods were dry. The seeds of each harvest time in the first experiment were dried in intact pods or in opened pods (with exposed seeds) at ambient laboratory conditions and evaluated in relation to 100 seeds weight, length, width and thickness of seeds. In the second experiment the seeds of each harvest were dried in intact pods or shelled, under same conditions as the first one and submitted to the germination test. Drying of intact pods abbreviated the development of immature seeds, hastened the onset of hard seeds and increased the hard seed content in the immature seeds comparativally with those dried exposed or shelled
Mucuna aterrima; harvest; germination; dormancy
