Small grains are often planted early in the spring when the soil is cool and wet creating ideal conditions for soilborne pathogens. Seed-borne pathogens that cause root rot and damping-off during germination and early seed growth, can often be prevented by treating seeds with conventional fungicides. Organic production does not allow conventional fungicide seed treatments and organic approved seed treatments may help farmers establish better stands of crops. The goal of this project was to compare the impact of various seed protectants and treatments on germination rates of spring wheat and barley

Cummings, Erica

Darby, Heather

Maia, Gabriella

Malone, Rory

English

UVM ScholarWorks

University of Vermont UVM ScholarWorks Northwest Crops & Soils Program UVM Extension 2018 Germination in Spring Grains Treated with Organic Seed Amendments and Aerated Steam Heather Darby Erica Cummings Gabriella Maia Rory Malone Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/nwcsp  Part of the Agricultural Economics Commons     Germination in Spring Grains  Treated with Organic Seed Amendments and Aerated Steam       Dr. Ann Hazelrigg, UVM Extension Pathologist and Dr. Heather Darby, UVM Extension Agronomist Erica Cummings, Gabriella Maia, and Rory Malone  UVM Extension Technicians  (802) 524-6501  Visit us on the web at: http://www.uvm.edu/nwcrops                          © March 2019, University of Vermont Extension   GERMINATION IN SPRING GRAINS TREATED WITH ORGANIC  SEED AMENDMENTS AND AERATED STEAM  Dr. Heather Darby, University of Vermont Extension heather.darby[at]uvm.edu  Small grains are often planted early in the spring when the soil is cool and wet creating ideal conditions for soilborne pathogens. Seed-borne pathogens that cause root rot and damping-off during germination and early seed growth, can often be prevented by treating seeds with conventional fungicides. Organic production does not allow conventional fungicide seed treatments and organic approved seed treatments may help farmers establish better stands of crops. The goal of this project was to compare the impact of various seed protectants and treatments on germination rates of spring wheat and barley.  MATERIALS AND METHODS  August 2017 Trial  Spring wheat seeds (var ‘Prosper’) (Albert Lea Seed House, Albert Lea, MN, 2016) were treated on 8-Aug 2017 with six organic biofungicide seed treatments, which included white mustard, skim milk power, aerated steam, K5 and K5AS2, (New York Advanced Biological Marketing, ABM, Geneva, NY) and an untreated control.  K5 and K5AS2 are two proprietary seed treatment products in development by ABM. K5 includes strains of Trichoderma and K5AS2 contains strains of Trichoderma and Bacillus. There were four replicates (Table 1).   Table 1. Organic seed amendment germination trial specifics, 2017.   UVM Greenhouse Prosper spring wheat treatment date 8-Aug Prosper spring wheat planting date 9-Aug Robust spring barley treatment date 16-Aug Robust spring barley planting date 18-Aug Replications  4 Seeds per replication  50 Potting medium  Sungro Professional Growing Mix  The aerated steam treated seeds were treated at 65℃ by High Mowing Organic Seeds (Wolcott, VT) for 90 seconds in 1” deep trays. After steam treatment, the seeds were dried to their original moisture over a period of 1 hour in a dehydrator at 30℃. The skim milk treatment consisted of 1.3g skim milk powder (Organic Non-fat Dry Milk Powder, NOW Foods, Bloomington, IL) for 10 g seed per 10 ml water. The mustard treatment (Brassica hirta, or Sinapis alba) consisted of 10 g mustard per 1000 g seed per 1000 ml water.  The K5 treatment consisted of 0.19 ml per 454 g seed (1 lb seed) per 10 ml water. The K5S2 treatment consisted of 0.19 ml K5AS2 per 454 g seed (1 lb seed) in 10 ml water, as recommended by ABM. After treatment, the 50 seeds were spread on paper towels to dry for 24 hours. Water used in the  seed treatments was distilled, sterile water. Aerated steam treated seeds and the non-treated control were also suspended in water before being spread to dry. Treatment concentrations, when applicable, are shown below in Table 2.   Table 2. Organic seed treatment concentrations, 2017 and 2018.  # Treatment Treatment concentration 1 White mustard (Sinapis alba) 10g/1000g seed/1000ml H2O 2 Skim milk powder 1.3g/10g seed/10ml H2O 3 Aerated steam  Steamed at 65℃ 4 K5  0.19ml/454g seed/10ml H2O 5 K5AS2  0.19ml/454 seed/10ml H2O 6 Untreated control N/A  50 seeds per replicate were planted on 9-Aug 2017 into Sungro Professional Growing Mix in 128 cell trays of 8 x 16 in the UVM Main Campus Greenhouse in house #6. The temperature was 68-74°F during the day, and 60-64°F at night, with a 15.5 hour photoperiod. Seed germinations were counted for 5 days by counting the number of sprouts. The percent germination as of day 5 was used for analysis. Seeds were marked with toothpicks when they were recorded as germinated to prevent seeds from being counted more than once. The trial was repeated with spring barley (var ‘Robust’) (Albert Lea Seed House, Albert Lea, MN, 2016) which were treated on 16-Aug 2017 and planted 18-Aug 2017.   February 2018 Trial   The second germination trial took place in February 2018 with a higher number of seeds per replication. The same seed source was used. The steam treatment methods above were repeated (Table 2) while the amount of the replications, length of trial, the amount of seeds per replication, and the potting media were altered. The potting media used was Fafard® #2 potting mix. Spring barley (var ‘Robust’) seeds were planted in UVM Greenhouse house #7 on 9-Feb 2018 (Table 3). There were 5 replications of 72 for 5 of the 6 treatments, except for the aerated steam treatment, which was 4 replications of 72 due to a shortage of aerated steam treated ‘Robust’ barley. On 16-Feb 2018, the non-germinated seeds were counted (the 7th day of the trial) and the trial was terminated. The methods were repeated with spring wheat seed (var ‘Prosper’), which were planted on 16-Feb 2018 in UVM Greenhouse house #7 in 5 replications of 72 seeds per treatment. Greenhouse temperature for both spring barley and spring wheat was 70-75°F during the day and 60-64°F at night, with a 16-hour photoperiod.       Table 3. Organic seed amendment germination trial specifics, 2018.   Data from the 2017 trial were analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with JMP (JMP®, Version 13. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, 1989-2019). Mean comparisons were made using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) procedure where the F-test was considered significant at p<0.05. Data from the 2018 trial were analyzed using a general linear model procedure of JMP (JMP®, Version 13. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, 1989-2019). Mean comparisons were made using Tukey’s Honest Significant Difference (HSD) to find the least significant differences where the F-test was considered significant at p<0.05.   Variations in project results can occur due to variation in genetics, soil, and other growing conditions. Statistical analysis makes it possible to determine whether a difference between treatments is significant or whether it is due to natural variations in the plant or field. At the bottom of each table, a LSD value is presented for each variable (i.e. germination).  Least Significant Differences (LSDs) at the 0.05 level of significance are shown. This means that when the difference between two treatments within a column is equal to or greater to the LSD value for the column, there is a real difference between the treatments 95% of the time. In the example to the right, treatment C was significantly different from treatment A, but not from treatment B. The difference between C and B is 1.5, which is less than the LSD value of 2.0 and so these treatments were not significantly different in yield. The difference between C and A is equal to 3.0, which is greater than the LSD value of 2.0. This indicates the yields of these treatments were significantly different from one another.  Treatments with the same letter indicate they are statistically similar, and the top yielding treatment is indicated in bold. RESULTS August 2017 Trial  The 2017 trial results are displayed below in Table 4. The ‘Robust’ spring barley was noted to be vigorous during germination. The aerated steam treatment had the highest germination percentage of all the treatments (99.0%). Although it was not significantly different from the control (96.5%), the aerated steam treatment performed significantly higher than the skim milk powder (95.5%) and K5 (90.0%). K5 had a significantly lower germination rate than all other treatments. While there were significant differences between germination rates for ‘Robust’ spring barley (P = 0.0010), ‘Prosper’ spring wheat treatments were statistically similar (P = 0.6658) to each other.    UVM Greenhouse Robust spring barley planting date 9-Feb Prosper spring wheat planting date 16-Feb Replications  5* Seeds per replication  72 Potting medium  Fafard® #2 potting media *With the exception of the spring barley aerated steam treatment, which had 4 replicates.   Treatment Yield A 6.0b B 7.5ab C 9.0a LSD 2.0  Table 4. Spring barley and spring wheat germination results, August 2017. Treatment Spring barley  germination Spring wheat  germination   % % White mustard (Sinapis alba) 96.5ab† 96.0 Skim milk powder 95.5b 98.0 Aerated steam  99.0a 97.0 K5 90.0c 96.0 K5AS2  96.5ab 98.0 Untreated control 96.5ab 97.5 LSD (0.05) 2.83 NS Trial Mean  95.7 97.0 †Treatments within a column with the same letter are statistically similar. Top performers are highlighted in bold.  LSD – Least significant difference. NS- Not significant.  February 2018 Trial In the 2018 trial, the spring barley treatments again showed significant differences between the seed treatments (P = 0.0215) while the spring wheat treatments were statistically similar (P = 0.9188). The spring barley aerated steam treatment (92.0%) was significantly higher than the skim milk powder, K5 (78.6%) and K5AS2 (78.9%) but was statistically similar to the white mustard (80.8%) and the control (80.8) (Table 5). Table 5. Spring barley and spring wheat germination results, February 2018. Treatment Spring Barley Germination Spring Wheat Germination   % % White mustard (Sinapis alba) 80.8ab† 96.1 Skim milk powder 79.2b 95.8 Aerated steam  92.0a 96.7 K5 78.6b 95.8 K5AS2 78.9b 97.5 Untreated control 80.8ab 96.1 LSD (0.05) 11.2 NS Trial Mean  81.7 96.3 †Treatments within a column with the same letter are statistically similar. Top performers are highlighted in bold. HSD- honest significant difference from Tukey LSD. NS- Not significant.   DISCUSSION  In both 2017 and 2018, the aerated steam treatment consistently had the highest germination rates in the spring barley and outperformed the skim milk powder and K5. While the top-performing treatments did not differ from the control, the results of these trials indicate that spring barley treated with skim milk powder and K5 may have decreased germination rates in comparison to other organic biofungicide treated seed or untreated seed. The lack of significant differences between spring wheat treatments in both trials suggests these methods of preventing seedborne pathogens with organic seed amendments and aerated steam treatments are less impactful on spring wheat germination.    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  This research was funded by The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA grant 2017-70006-27143. UVM Extension would also like to thank the UVM Greenhouse Facilities for hosting this trial. The information is presented with the understanding that no product discrimination is intended and no endorsement of any product mentioned or criticism of unnamed products is implied.    UVM Extension helps individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work.  Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. University of Vermont Extension, Burlington, Vermont. University of Vermont Extension, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating, offer education and employment to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status 

Germination in Spring Grains Treated with Organic Seed Amendments and Aerated Steam

https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1300&context=nwcsp

Germination in Spring Grains Treated with Organic Seed Amendments and Aerated Steam

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UVM ScholarWorks