Summary
You have now reached the end of the online learning component of this course. In this final module, you have deepened your understanding of the conditions seeds need to germinate. You have discovered what dormancy is, and observed some common techniques that are used to break dormancy.
During this course, you have read the latest scientific research about genebanks’ practice. You have watched videos of international genebanks tackling matters of seed quality. You have made connections between the strategic objectives of genebanks (such as seed longevity, viability and genetic integrity) and the day-to-day procedures carried out in order to meet those objectives. Having studied this course, you should not only have a better appreciation of how to manage seed quality, but also the scientific reasons why these techniques work.
You might like to download the notes you have made during the course and take them away with you after you have finished. You do this by clicking 'Download your answers for the documents on this course', as shown in the illustration below. This will generate a .pdf file that you can download.
Even after the course is finished, you will still be able to refer back to it. You can still log in to review the main text with its useful resources and links to external websites and documents. The videos and animations will still be at your disposal. So will the additional reading in 'Useful publications'.
Remember, in order to gain your digital badge and certificate of completion, you need to have worked through the entire course, and participated in all discussions. If you are sure you have done this, it is time to proceed to the end of course quiz. As well as proving to others that you have engaged successfully with the course, this final quiz will help you to consolidate your learning.
Module 5 at a glance:
- Germination tests provide crucial information about the longevity and viability of seeds in storage.
- To be sure the results of a germination test are reliable, ensure that you provide all the conditions a seed needs to germinate (including but not limited to: water, substrate, oxygen and temperature).
- Dormancy is more common in wild species than crops, since it has been selected against in crops.
- There are different types of dormancy: primary or secondary; physical, physiological or morphological, or combinations of these.
- The different types of dormancy have different mechanisms, and their onset can be at different times in a seed’s life in storage.
- Dormancy can be broken by dormancy-breaking techniques, which vary according to species: the most common of these are scarification and manipulating temperature.
Question 7