A useful depiction of the progress of germination
was provided by Nonogaki et al. (2010). The time
course of water uptake by a germinating seed was
divided into 3 phases. In phase I, there is rapid
imbibition of water by the dry seed until all of
the matrices and cell contents are fully hydrated,
followed by a period of limited water uptake (Phase
II). The increase in water uptake associated with
Phase III is initially, and briefly, related to completion
of germination. The slight increase in water content
is followed by a much larger uptake as the cells of
the growing radical. In this experiment, the growing
radical was visually observed in stage 3. From
Figure 1, it can be seen that germination percentage
of dehulled rice was higher than that of rough rice.
This was due to the husk of grains which act as a
barrier for water uptake into kernels. The husk of
black waxy rice (Niew Dam) is the thickest amongst
three samples, resulting in the lowest germination
percentage.