Download the Toolkit: Seed - Cultivation Toolkit Eng Amended.pdf

Seed Cultivation -Seed Quality

Quality is an ongoing theme throughout the whole seed production process.

 

Why is seed quality important?

Seed producers want to produce the best quality seeds. As growers we know that good quality seeds will show better germination rates and store for longer. They produce healthier plants with a greater resistance to pests and diseases and will produce a higher yield.

  • Important in organic horticulture.
  • In general, the fatter, heavier and the more mature the seed, the better the quality.
  • As well as quality of the individual seed, quality could also be described as ‘purity’ of the harvested seed stock as a whole.
  • A final stock of good quality seeds will have a high percentage of ‘pure’ seeds and very low proportion of, inert substances.g. parts of unviable seed, seeds without seed coat, soil, small stones, fungal bodies and weed seeds.

This toolkit covers:

Healthy Seed Crops

Healthy plants equal healthy seeds.

Cultivation is an extremely important factor in seed quality. Providing optimum growing conditions for your crop will produce healthy and vigorous plants to save seed from. Stressed plants will produce flowers and seeds as a last-ditch survival mechanism but the seeds will not be of the best quality.

 

Seed Pests & Diseases

In general, pests and disease problems can significantly weaken plant health and in consequence seed quality. There is also the potential for diseases be carried on to the next generation through infected seed.

 

Seed Borne Diseases & Pathogens?

How do we know when a disease or pathogen is seed borne or not? If pathogens have an ‘early start’ by being already present on the seed when it’s sown they will have a much greater effect on the emerging plant.

 

Seed Treatments

There are some organic seed treatments available to reduce bacterial and fungal pathogens.

 

Download the Toolkit: Seed Cultivation - Seed Quality



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