Influence of post‐flowering temperature on seed development, and subsequent performance of crisp lettuce

SUMMARY Crisp lettuce plants cv. Saladin were grown from the time they started flowering, at 20/10°C (16 h day, 8 h night), 25/15°C and 30/20°C in glasshouses on two occasions in 1985. Yields of seed increased from, on average, 15 g to 27 g and then fell to 20 g per plant with progressive increases in temperature. The number of mature florets per plant increased with temperature but the number of seeds per mature floret was lower at 20/10°C and 30/20°C than at 25/15°C. An increase in temperature reduced mean seed weight by up to 45%, seed volume by 15%, cell numerical volume density (Nv) by 27% and the number of cells per seed by 39%. Percentage seed germination reached a maximum early in seed development at the stage when the pappus appeared through the involucral bracts. Differences in percentage germination and vigour of seeds (slope test) from different temperatures were accounted for largely by the effects on mean seed weight. However, when germinated at 30°C seeds produced at 30/20°C germinated more readily than those produced at 25/15°C or 20/10°C. Seed vigour gradually increased with an increase in the length of storage after harvest, reaching a maximum after 260 days. In general, seeds produced at 25/15°C exhibited a greater variation in numbers of seeds per floret, Nv, seed weight, times of seedling emergence, seedling and mature head weight than seeds produced at lower or higher temperatures.