Seed Harvesting Properties of Corn Hybrids Under Two-Stage Separation

Abstract The objective of this experiment was to identify the effects of two-stage separation of a mixture of corn hybrid seeds to their fractional structure, sawing qualities, and harvesting properties. Research materials were seeds from different ripeness groups of selection in the State Establishment Institute of Grain Crops of National Academy Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine. The research included the laboratory modeling of the seed-separation process in the regimes of sieve separation which was done by features of the linear dimension of a seed. The separation process had two stages – the first stage and the second stage. At the first stage, this mixture of seeds was divided into two components with approximately similar capacity. At the first stage of choice, separate surfaces depended on the shape of the seed and the surface could have holes with different dimension sizes (round holes with a definite diameter or oblong with definite width and length). At the second stage, each component of the seed mixture was divided into fractions of necessary quantity, they had different shapes and linear dimensions of a seed. In researches, it was determined output and weight of 1,000 seeds as the main technic-technological indexes of the seed separation process, laboratory, and field germination, and yield capacity of fractions for corn seeds as the main indexes of quality. It was established that the two-stage method of division of the seed mass into fractions by feature “width of caryopsis” was the most effective for the separation of sowing materials of corn seeds. The indicated method provided the output of high-quality seeds of hybrid Svitiaz’ for the first sowing group within 68.8 – 81.9%, for the second sowing group 66.6 – 81.2% by years of researches. Separation in a two-stage regime with a division of seed mixture at the finishing phase of the seed separator work by feature “thickness of caryopsis” provided the formation of more uniform seed fractions.