Viability rules
An inventory viability rule has a unique name, category, number of replicates, and number of seeds per replicate. These two latter values are especially important as they will eventually generate the records that will be used to store the results of the testing observations, such as the numbers of seeds that germinated and didn’t germinate.
Viability rules also contain additional information that describes the testing protocol. Most of the form fields are text fields in which you can describe in detail the various aspects and steps, intervals, and environmental conditions needed to implement the testing protocol. The fields defining the protocol include the Count Regime Days, Substrate, Lighting, Moisture, Prechill and Temperature Range.
Remember that whenever a new inventory test is being created, a rule must be selected to complete the Inventory viability rule field in the form. Your genebank should consider a naming convention for its rules that is consistent and provides meaningful names (the name could provide a hint as to how the rule is used, perhaps what crop the rule typically applies to, etc.).
Adding a new viability rule
On the Seed viability menu, select the Viability rules option to list the existing rules. When the list displays (and no rows have been selected), the Add button is visible at the bottom right. Click on the button to add a new rule.
Completing the viability rule form
When viewing the list of viability rules list, clicking the Add button will display the Add inventory viability rule form. The first couple of fields are essential, as they are used to name the rule and indicate the number of replicates and number of seeds per replicate. Completing the other fields is also important in documenting the viability test conditions. These fields are text fields; input text that sufficiently describes the testing environment.
Editing or deleting existing viability rules
On the Seed viability menu, when the Viability rules option is selected in the left menu and you have selected one or more rules from the list, click on the bottom action button and select the Edit or Remove option as needed.
It is recommended to not remove viability rules that have been used in existing viability tests because these rules provide historical context and document the testing protocol that was followed. Likewise, it is recommended to add a new rule rather than edit a rule when the rule has already been used for earlier viability tests.
