| It is very important for a
grower to start with high quality, disease-free seed.
Seed production areas that have
endemic populations of the disease organisms and stricter
governmental regulations that limit the use of pesticides are making
the path to this objective a true challenge.
The
seed industry has responded by developing various seed
technology methods such as mechanical cleaning, disinfection
procedures and specialized coatings in an attempt to eradicate
seedborne microbial organisms and/or pathogens. Disinfection
methods that are in use include treatments with hot water,
calcium hypochlorite,
ozone or UV-C radiation. |
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| Some of these techniques are
well known and widely used by the seed industry. Unfortunately
they are not always successful in eradicating the targeted
pathogen and all too often they have a negative influence on
seed quality and result in a loss of shelf-life. |
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