The digital evaluation of the cracking force of common vetch with the different characteristics of pod shattering

After three years of screening 541 common vetch (Vicia sativa) accessions from National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), 33 accessions with high, moderate and low pod shattering rate were selected for the further study. In the present study, the pod shattering rate, the pod horizontal cracking mechanical force and vertical cracking mechanical force of these 33 common vetch accessions were analyzed and measured by a digital mechanical force gauge (HANDPI, HP-50) to provide accurate and rapid evaluation method for screening non-shattering accessions. The results showed that the cracking mechanical force of accessions with high pod shattering rate was significantly lower (P<0.01) than that of accessions with low pod shattering rate. The horizontal cracking mechanical force of common vetch pods was significantly lower (P<0.01) than the vertical cracking mechanical force of them. The accessions with horizontal cracking mechanical force greater than the 9.286 N were low shattering accessions, meanwhile the accessions with horizontal cracking mechanical force less than 2.163 N were high shattering accessions. These results indicated that pod horizontal cracking mechanical force measured by digital mechanical force gauge could accurately reflect the pod crack characteristic of different accessions and provided reference for the pod shattering characteristics.