Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW.

40 Cz. Waszkiewicz, M. Sypułaspoilage of grain by deterioration ofits sowing, feeding and technologicalvalue.Therefore, this work aimed atdetermination of the effect of storageconditions for wheat and barley grainon mould development and changes ingermination energy and capacity duringstorage. The temperature, air humidityand time of storage were taken asparameters for determination of storageconditions.MATERIAL AND METHODSThe investigations were carried out onwinter wheat grain of Flair variety andspring barley grain of Justyna varietyharvested in 2006. Grain was put intoclimatic chamber KPK200 of Feutronmake and was stored in galvanizedcontainers at fixed temperature and airmoisture content. Investigations wereexecuted at the following air parametersin the chamber:––3 temperature levels (20°C, 25°C and30°C),2 levels of relative humidity (94%and 99%).Relative air humidity set up in thechamber to 94% and 99% enabled tosteady the equilibrium moisture contentof grain at given temperature duringstorage. The equilibrium moisturecontent ranged from 20.2 to 23.6% forwheat grain and from 19.8 to 24.8%for barley grain, depending on storageparameters.Temperature and air humidity in thechamber were measured with the use ofhytherograph LB-701 of LAB-EL make,with maximal error of temperaturemeasurements 0.4°C and maximalerror of moisture content measurements1.5%.Then, at specified time intervals3 grain samples were taken out ofthe chamber, each of 100 pieces, andthere was determined the number ofmould attacked grains and germinationcapacity.The mould attacked grain wasevaluated visually with the use ofmagnifying glass, searching forcharacteristic symptoms of mould(white, then green, green and yellow,and brown or black). After countingof mould-attacked seeds, there wascalculated their percentage ratio in entireamount of seeds taken from the samples.The germination capacity and energy forwheat and barley grain were investigatedaccording to PN-79/R-95950 with theuse of Jacobsen’s germination apparatus.The germination energy was determinedafter 3 days (barley) and 4 days (wheat)of keeping grain in the apparatus, whilethe measurements on germinationcapacity were executed after 7 and 8days, respectively.RESULTS OF INVESTIGATIONSAND DISCUSSIONThe multifactor analysis of varianceproved that all three consideredindependent variables (temperature,relative air humidity, time of storage)influenced significantly the moulddevelopment and germination capacity.The results presented in Figure 1 pointout that temperature 30°C and humidity99% are the most favourable conditionsfor mould development, since after twodays 10% of wheat grain was attacked,