A pressing problem of vegetable production is the quality of sown seeds. In this regard, assessment of seed quality before sowing and storage is of great practical interest. The modern level of research requires automated instrumental methods of seed quality evaluation, allowing to obtain more information in a shorter time.
One of the most important vegetable crops in Russia is cabbage. Today, it accounts for a quarter of the vegetable ration of the Russian population. Cabbage also occupies more than 20% of the sown areas of vegetables in the country, and the need for white cabbage seeds is more than 50 tons annually. Therefore, the seed market is significant, and both Russian and international companies compete in it.
"We adapted the previously developed methodology for detecting latent defects in cereal seeds for vegetable seeds. In particular, in this study, we worked with seeds of cabbage of different species. We revealed and identified defects of seeds affecting their economic value. Now, we hope that this methodology will lead to improvement of product quality of cabbage seed suppliers in Russia," said Nikolai Potrakhov, Head of the Department of Electronic Instruments and Devices at LETI.
The research was carried out using a mobile unit for digital radiography of seeds developed by scientists of the department and engineers of ELTEH-Med company. It consists of a shielded chamber, radiation source, digital image receiver, and positioning device for the object. Besides, the unit uses software that automatically detects and classifies seed defects.
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