Screening Method for Excessive Water Tolerance at Germinating Stage of Peanut

This study was conducted to develop the testing method for excessive water tolerance at germinating stage and to screen 31 domestic peanut cultivars. Regardless of peanut grain scales, the amount of seed absorption nearly reached the peak in 10 hours after imbibition. When peanut seed in vermiculate soil was directly soaked in water, ability of emergence did not reduced until 16 days and then sharply reduce to 25 days with non-emergence. When seeds germinated for 1, 2, 3, and 4 days after seeding (DAS) were soaked, the emergence abilities were distinctively varied according to the sequent soaking days such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 days. This explained the negative relationship between first germinating days (DAS) and following soaking days. Using the method of 2 day germinating and 3 day soaking that show less than 70% of emergence ability, 31 peanut cultivars were applied to test excessive water tolerance. Emergence rates varied 0% to 69% according to cultivar. Cultivar Daekwang, Sinkwang, Daecheong and Baekseon had over 50% emergence rates. These results suggested that the degree of water resistance in germinating stage may be important point to evaluate the excessive water resistance among cultivars.