Assessment of cereal seed shape with the use of sphericity factors

Shape is one of the key discriminating factors in seeds. It plays a major role in seed cleaning and sorting, and it influences the bulk behavior of seeds. The shape of seeds can be described with the use of sphericity factors. In this study, the thickness, width, length and mass of principal cereal seeds (wheat, rye, barley, oats and triticale) were determined. The geometric parameters of seeds were used to calculate five sphericity factors for each seed type. The results of measurements and calculations were processed statistically by analysis of variance, correlation analysis and linear regression analysis. In the group of the analyzed cereal seeds, the lowest values were noted for sphericity factor K5 in the range of 0.046 to 0.275, and the highest values - for sphericity factor K3 in the range of 0.359 to 0.650. The shape of cereal seeds was mostly highly correlated with: thickness in barley seeds, width in wheat seeds, width and thickness in rye and triticale seeds, and length in oat seeds. All of the analyzed sphericity factors can be used interchangeably to describe the shape of cereal seeds, and the relationships between those factors can be described with linear equations.