Lecture No.

19
Advances in Seed Production of Soybean (Glycine max)
Nucleus seed production
Base population: In soybean, a minimum of 500 plants should be selected for planting
progeny rows. The plants should be selected uniformly from the entire population of breeder
or nucleus seed plot or AVT II seed grown in one acre (0.4 hectare). The actual number of
plants to be selected will depend upon seed multiplication ratio and targeted quantity of
breeder seed. The source of base population for pre-released varieties may be plots of
Advanced Varietal Trial II.
Selection from base population: The selection of plants from base population should be on
the basis of morphological identity to the original characteristics of the variety. The selected
plants should be true-to-type of the variety.
Harvesting/threshing of single plants: The plants are harvested at the time of maturity and
dried for two days in the field. Thereafter they are tied in bundles of 50-100 plants and
allowed to shade dry for 4-5 days. Individual plants are threshed manually to avoid
mechanical damage to the seed. The seed is kept in paper packets and dried to 9% moisture
before storage.
Table examination of seed: Individual plant seeds are examined for seed colour, hilum
colour, seed size and seed shape. The seed of any plant not conforming to the standard is
rejected. Hilum colour in soybean is subject to occasional variation, therefore any variation
from the original variety should be specially looked for and discarded. The seeds with poor
appearance and showing symptoms of seed borne diseases should also be discarded. Properly
labelled seed packets are kept in cloth/ gunny/polythene bags and stored at 25°C and 50-60%
RH.
Nucleus seed stage I
The nucleus seed plot should be well drained, clean and fertile. It should be free from
volunteer plants. The single plants should be sown in single rows of 3 to 5 meter length. The
distance between rows should be 45-60 cm.
Planting season: The normal planting season for soybean is kharif. The plot should be sown
during the optimum period recommended for respective locations. Soybean is a
photosensitive and short day crop. Delayed sowing results in poor growth and early flowering
in determinate varieties.
Observation of progeny rows: The progeny rows are continually examined for various
characters throughout the growing season. The rows with off type plants are rogued. If off
type is detected after flowering, adjoining rows are also removed. The purified single plant
progenies are harvested separately.
Harvesting and threshing: The crop should be harvested when the seed moisture is 17-18%
without any delay to avoid shattering and prevent seed deterioration. It should be threshed
manually at 13-15% seed moisture to minimize mechanical injury to seed during threshing.
The seed of each progeny is table examined for seed characters and undesirable types should
be rejected. The cleaned seed, of selected rows should be bulked to make it nucleus seed
stock. The seed should be dried to moisture of 8-9% before storage.
Nucleus seed stage II
The bulk of individual plant progenies in soybean are often designated as G0. When
the demand of breeder seed is limited, this seed can be used directly for growing breeder
seed. In case large quantities of breeder seed are required, this seed should be used to grow
nucleus seed stage II. The seed is sown in plots of 5 meters width with a tract of 1 metre. The
seed rate is kept at 80% of recommended rate for commercial crop. The crop is grown with
standard package of practices. The plot is regularly examined throughout growing season.
The rest of the practices are same as in nucleus seed stage I.
Breeder seed production
Seed source: The seed source for breeder seed is nucleus seed. It could be nucleus seed stage
I i.e. bulk of single plant progenies or nucleus seed stage II. In exceptional circumstances,
breeder seed stage I can be used to produce breeder seed stage II provided the genetic purity
is maintained.
Isolation: Soybean being a highly self pollinated crop with outcrossing of less than 1 % and
therefore the minimum isolation distance required is 3 m for avoiding physical mixtures.
Roguing: The breeder seed plot should be monitored minutely throughout the crop season
specifically at flowering stage, pod filling and maturity stages. The roguing should be carried
out under the supervision of plant breeder and rogued plants should be removed from the
field.
Harvesting and processing: The soybean crop reaches maturity when the pods have lost their
green colour and attain the mature pod color characteristic of the variety and seed has become
hard. The crop should be promptly harvested at this stage to avoid shattering and field
deterioration. The soybean seed is highly prone to mechanical damage during harvesting if
the seed moisture is below 13 per cent. Therefore, desiccation should be avoided for the seed
crop. After a few days when seed moisture reaches 13-15%, the crop should be threshed
either by tractor treading or by multicrop thresher at 300-400 rpm. For direct combining, the
seed damage should be around 14%, the combine should be set carefully to avoid seed
damage. The processing should be carried out at seed moisture of 12-13 per cent. An air
screen cleaner is the most effective for soybean seed. The recommended sieve size for
processing is 8.0 mm round for top screen and 4.0 mm oblong for bottom screen.
Grow out test: Seed must confirm to the strict standards of genetic purity and subjected to
grow out test as per the standard procedure. For ensuring genetic purity, the minimum
population required for grow out test should be followed. The plants should be observed for
various characters throughout the growing season. The off type plants are tagged and their
number is recorded.
Foundation and Certified Seed Production of Varieties:
Land Requirements
The land selected should not be cultivated with soyabean in the previous season. In
addition the field should be well drained and should be free of volunteer plants.
Isolation requirements:
The dehiscence of anthers takes place in the bud itself before opening of the flower
and hence, normally self pollination takes place. Cross pollination by insects is usually less
than one percent. The crop should be raised in isolation and seeds should be produced by self
pollination. The isolation distance maintained between the varieties of soyabean is 3 meters
for both certified and foundation seed production.
Brief cultural practices:
Obtain nucleus/breeder’s / foundation seed from a source approved by a seed
certification agency. First fortnight of July is the most appropriate time for sowing soybean.
Seed rate is 65 to 70 kg/ ha. Spacing adopted is 45 to 60 cm row to row and plant to plant is 4
to 5 cm.
Roguing Start roguing plants affected by yellow mosaic virus and soybean mosaic virus as
soon as they appear, so as to check further spread upto first two to three weeks. Continue
removal of plants affected by soybean mosaic till harvest. At flowering stage remove off-type
plants on the basis of plant characteristics and flower colour. Final roguing should be done at
maturity stage, to rogue out offtypes on the basis of pod characters.
Field inspection A minimum of two inspections will be done, one at flowering and second at
maturity stage by the Seed Certification Officer.
Field standards
Foundation seed Certified seed
Isolation distance 3m 3m
Off-types 0.10% 0.50%
Harvesting: Time of harvest and method of threshing is most important for maintaining seed
quality. Crop harvested in the second week of October retained higher germination than crop
harvested in the second week of December. Therefore, to retain higher seed germination,
harvest the crop as soon as it is ready for harvest when moisture content is around 13 to 14
per cent. Harvesting may be done by hand or the crop can be directly combined.
Seed yield
The average seed yield ranges from 20 to 25 quintals per hectare.