## 2 Materials and Methods  
The research was conducted on the seeds of three winter cereals, i.e., tritticale (Gringo cultivar--Danko Company, Choryr, Poland), rye (Agata cultivar--Danko Company, Poland), and barley (LG Veronika cultivar--Top Farms Nasiona, Runowo, Poland) (Figure 1).  
Both dressed and untreated seeds were used in the research. The seeds were wet-dressed with Syngenta [34] Vibrance Gold fungicide in September 2019 in order to protect  
Figure 1: The seeds of three winter cereals used in the study: (**a**)—untreated seeds and (**b**)—dressed seeds.  
them from the pathogens and pests on their surface or inside. Before the experiment the initial seed moisture content measured with a RADWAG MAX 50/WH moisture analyzer was about 7%. The measurement accuracy was up to 0.01%. Next, the moisture content in the samples was increased to levels of about 9.5%, 11.5%, 13.5%, 15.5%, and 17.5% by adding an appropriate amount of water \(M_{w}\), as can be seen in Equation (1) [35, 36, 37]:  
\[M_{w}=\frac{W_{2}-W_{1}}{100-W_{2}}\cdot M_{p} \tag{1}\]  
where \(M_{w}\) is the amount of water necessary to increase the moisture content in g, \(M_{p}\) is the weight of the moistened sample in g, \(W_{1}\) is the initial moisture content of the sample in %, and \(W_{2}\) is the assumed moisture content of the sample in %.  
The moisture content was increased by adding an appropriate amount of water to samples weighing 20 g. Next, the samples were refrigerated for 24 h at a temperature of 3-4 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Then, 100 seeds of each cereal species were randomly selected from each moistened sample and their physical parameters were measured. The other seeds were used for measurements of the moisture content.  
The physical properties of seeds were measured in accordance with the methodology described by [PERSON] et al. [38]. The physical characteristics, such as the length and width of the seeds, were measured with an MWM 2325 workshop microscope with an accuracy of 0.02 mm. The thickness of the seeds was measured with an accuracy of 0.01 mm by means of a thickness gauge with a dial sensor. The weight of the seeds was measured with an accuracy of 0.1 mg by means of a RADWAG WAA 100/C/2 laboratory balance. Figure 2 shows a diagram with the devices used for the measurements of the physical parameters of the seeds.  
Figure 2: A diagram with the devices used for the measurements of the physical parameters of the seeds used in the experiment, depending on their moisture content.  
The following parameters were calculated based on geometric measurements of the seeds:  
The geometric equivalent diameter \(D_{g}\) (Equation (2)), aspect ratio \(R\) (Equation (3)), and sphericity index \(\Phi\) (Equation (4)) are as follows [30]:  
\[D_{g}=(T\cdot W\cdot L)^{\frac{1}{3}}\ [\mathrm{mm}] \tag{2}\]  
\[R=\frac{W}{L}\cdot 100\ [\%] \tag{3}\]  
\[\Phi=\frac{(T\cdot W\cdot L)^{\frac{1}{3}}}{L}\cdot 100\ [\%] \tag{4}\]  
where \(T\) is the seed thickness (mm), \(W\) is the seed width (mm), \(L\) is the seed length (mm), and \(m_{D}\) is the unit weight (Equation (5)) [39]:  
\[m_{D}=\frac{m}{D_{g}}\Big{[}\ g\cdot m^{-1}\Big{]} \tag{5}\]  
where \(m\) is the seed weight (mg).  
The following equation was used to calculate the volume of seeds \(V_{g}\), whose shape resembles a rotational ellipsoid (Equation (6)) [40]:  
\[V_{g}=\frac{\pi\cdot T\cdot W\cdot L}{6}\Big{[}\ \mathrm{mm}^{3}\Big{]} \tag{6}\]  
The results of measurements and calculations were statistically processed with the Statistica program (version 13) at a significance level of 0.05, using the module of descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The differences between the physical characteristics and the level of moisture were determined by means of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Statistically significant differences were determined with [PERSON]'s test [41; 42].