Sugar-beet seed steep treatments to improve germination under cold, wet conditions

✍ Scribed by M. J. Durrant; S. J. Mash

• Book ID: 104616589
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 453 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6903
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00035130

✦ Synopsis

Modifying the present commercial sugar-beet steep treatment (12 h in 0 .2% thiram suspension, 25 °C) to include an initial 2 h steep in 0 .3 M hydrochloric acid, decreased fruit weight and cortex density and improved the performance of the inherently slower part of the population under cold, wet conditions . Adding gibberellins (GA4,7 ) or an N-substituted phthalimide (AC 94377) to the thiram steep was also beneficial whereas kinetin of N6benzyladenine gave no improvement . Germination was even more rapid and better synchronised following a 4-day seed advancement sequence, particularly when this started with the acid steep . Overall, it was possible to increase the proportion of seeds which gave a root or produced hypocotyls at least 2cm tall by 9% and 14% respectively ; the thermal time needed for the 90th seed to germinate was reduced from 73 to 30 day degrees and synchrony could be improved at least two-fold .