Cereal seed treatments

[emiled]

Interested to hear comments about your perceptions about cereal (wheat/barley) seed treatments....As growers, do you treat your wheat and barley seed? Why or why not? What's your perception about some of the newer seed treatment options?

[danm]

We have used treatments through out the years & are just learning now the actual dangers of these.Products now are not as bad (so they say)
So we now presently use vitvax for mainly fusarium control (seed) on our wheat.Canola has always been treated with premier etc.The interesting thing is we never really ever notice & really big difference in treated & untreated especially in wheat & using it mainly as a piece of mind.The only data I have seen is from the company selling.Any suggestions? The only big differnce noticed has been one lentals & using crown& have had excellent seedling vigour etc.so maybe it is working the best.
I have been looking at organic treatment this year & seeing if it will work (fish meal or something) It will be interested to see what the response is especially in oats .Will be side to side test.I will keep you posted if you want.

[emiled]

Finding independent data on seed treatments can be a challenge. Seed treatments are generally considered as insurance against seedling disease. To evaluate the potential risk of seedling diseases, I think all we can do is review things like crop rotation, seed quality, potential growing conditions early in the season, varietal differences, etc.

[winston]

Seed treatments are expensive (3.50/ acre for RSW) and you have to make sure you are using the corrct one. Some will control soil born fusarium and seed born fusarium but others will not. The cheaper older treatments may only control bunt etc and not fusarium.

I have seen some data from AG Canada whre there was a huge response to treating seed that was being sown into fusarium infected soil so perhaps they are worth our while to apply.

[emiled]

I agree that it is worth spending time to investigate what you're buying with any seed treatment. Fusarium is the current "buzz" word which has led to a lot of confusion in seed treatments......There are different strains of fusarium fungi....many are involved in seedling diseases but fusarium gramineareum is the main strain which is responsible for FHB.

As it can be introduced to fields through seed, testing your seed for the incidence of fusarium graminearum is a responsible practice.

Seed treatments can also be used to minimize the possibility of introducing this strain to uninfected FHB fields.