Dormant seeds are viable seeds, other than hard seeds, which fail to germinate when provided the specified germination conditions for the kind of seed in question.

(a) Viability of ungerminated seeds shall be determined by any of the following methods or combinations of methods: a cutting test, tetrazolium test, scarification, or application of germination promoting chemicals.

(b) The percentage of dormant seed, if present, shall be determined in addition to the percentage of germination for the following kinds: Bahiagrass, basin wildrye, big bluestem, little bluestem, sand bluestem, yellow bluestem, bottlebrush-squirreltail, buffalograss, buffelgrass, galletagrass, forage kochia, blue grama, side-oats grama, Indian ricegrass, johnsongrass, sand lovegrass, weeping lovegrass, mountain rye, sand dropseed, smilo, switchgrass, veldtgrass, western wheatgrass, and yellow indiangrass.

(c) For green needlegrass, if the test result of method 2 is less than the result of method 1, subtract the result of method 2 from method 1 and report the difference as the percentage of dormant seed. Refer to §201.58(b)(7).

[46 FR 53638, Oct. 29, 1981, as amended at 59 FR 64506, Dec. 14, 1994]