Many environment's factor can affect the germination, among them, the water availability and the seeds moisture content are important. The objective of the present investigation was to verify the influence of water availability of the substratum and moisture content of several cultivars of beans seeds in their germination and to verify the possible effects of imbibition's damage. The treatments were constituted with bean seeds of seven cultivars: IAC-Tunã, IAC-Ybaté, IAC-Apuã, IAC-Tybatã, IAC-Votuporanga, IAC-Carioca and Carioca with moisture content of 9, 11 and 13% and submitted the water availability of the substratum of -0,04, -0,1, -0,2 and -0,4 MPa. The germination's percentage of each cultivar was evaluated for each condition. Therefore, the conclusion was that when the water availability decrease, with the increase of the hydro deficiency, the germination is reduced to any moisture content condition in the seeds for the seven cultivars. As for the seeds moisture content, it was not checked the influence in the germination. The imbibition's damage was not observed in the conditions which the seeds had been submitted.
Phaseolus vulgaris; seed physiological quality
