ABSTRACT
Temperature is one of the factors which play a major role in deciding the planting value of a seed lot in the seed testing laboratory. The temperature requirement varies with species. High or low temperature may stimulate or inhibit the germination of seeds under testing. The tropical crops may require higher temperature than temperate crops for germination. Eventhough, a seed lot is having high germination and vigour parameter, it could be revealed with suitable seed testing temperature only. Since bhendi is a tropical vegetable crop, two varieties of bhendi, Arka Anamika and CO4 with each five different lots were tested with four different temperature regimes viz., 15, 20, 25 and 30ºC. The experimental results revealed that bhendi seeds performed well at the temperature regime of 30ºC followed by 25ºC which was on par with each other. It was also accompanied with seed quality characteristics of seedling length, vigour index and dry matter production of seedlings. Irrespective of varieties and lots studied, the high temperature showed its superiority over other temperatures. The study also disclosed that the low temperature of 15ºC was not suitable for bhendi seed germination, because none of the seeds produced normal seedling. At low temperature seeds could produce more abnormal seedlings than rest of the temperature regimes studied. It could be inferred that the seed testing temperature suitable for bhendi seed germination is 30°C or 25°C. Low temperature (15°C) is not suitable, since the normal seedlings were not produced at this temperature.