Effects of calcium fertilizer on seed coat cracking and anthocyanins,cel-lulose and calcium content of cowpea
FANG Guanna
PANG Shumin
LI Tianrui
LIANG Zheng
LI Dongbiao
Abstract：Seed coat cracking is a prevalent agronomic defect in cowpea production,which severely impairs seed vigor and germination performance.To evaluate the feasibility of mitigating seed coat cracking through calcium fertilization,a field experiment was conducted using six cowpea varieties as test materials.Calcium fertilizer was administered via two approaches:As a base fertilizer during sowing and as a foliar spray at the podding stage.Subsequently,the seed coat cracking rate was investigated,and the content of anthocyanin,cellulose,and calcium in the seed coat were determined.The results demonstrated that both calcium application methods significantly increased the cellulose and calcium content in the cowpea seed coat,while markedly reducing the anthocyanin content.Correspondingly,the seed coat cracking rate was decreased by 3.1-12.7 percent points compared with the control group.Correlation analysis revealed that the cracking rate of cowpea seeds is extremely significantly positively correlated with the anthocyanin content and significantly nega-tively correlated with the cellulose content.Collectively,these findings indicate that enhanced calcium fertilization can serve as an effective agronomic measure to alleviate seed coat cracking in cowpea production.
Keywords：CowpeaSeed crackingCalcium fertilizerAnthocyanin contentCellulose contentCalcium content
Publication Date：2026-02-05
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-10(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 163-169 )