ABSTRACT: Genetic banks manage seed collections for the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources. AGB implements standards for genebank management recommending a temperature of -18 ± 3°C for long-term storage of the base collection and 5-10°C for medium-term storage of the active collection.The germination energy of the 12 maize accessions taken in the study has relatively low initial values. The values of germination energy, even after 20 years of seed storage, do not deviate much from the initial data (from 2000) and from those from 2010 (10 years of seed storage). The germination data for the three years of testing are somewhat small in the initial testing. The average capacity germination for all 12 accessions under study in the 2010 test is 4.2% lower than the initial test (year 2000), so there is a decrease in capacity germination. Whereas in the testing of 2020, i.e. after storing the seed for 20 years in the genetic bank, there was a decrease in capacity germination on average of 2.9%; that is, there was less decrease in capacity germination in the second 10 years of storage compared to the first 10 years. The reduction in germination is not to the same degree between accessions. Four pairs of correlations were found, three between energy germination indicators and one among capacity germination. The correlation coefficients are positive and related to the age of the seed.
Keywords: accession, base collections, capacity germination, energy germination, long-term storage