SEED / SEEDLING

PRODUCTION

IMPORTANCE OF USING GOOD SEEDS

Seed is the basic commodity of agriculture. Planting good seeds is
essential to the success in growing vegetables.
Planting any vegetable variety except the variety best adapted to
the environment in which it will grow unnecessarily limits the
potential for high yields and profits even before the first seed is
planted.
No amount of fertilization, irrigation or other cultural practices will
give profits from poorly adapted varieties.
The value of good seeds was described by one grower when he
said At no point in the production of crops can greater results be
obtained with less effort than the seed

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD SEEDS

Seed characteristics are very important to obtain high percentage of seed germination.
Among the characteristics to be considered are:
1. Varietal purity growers should be careful not to buy varieties that are mixed. The plants
resulting from the seed sown must possess the characteristics of the
variety to
the variety to which the seed belongs.
2. Germination and vigor seed viability affects seedling stand in the field. Seeds that
germinate 90% will establish more seedlings than those germinating only
70%. Seedling vigor is usually greatest from seeds of good quality.
3. Uniformity of size With seeds of uniform size, evenness in emergence and uniform seedling
stand are easily obtained.
4. Free from seed borne diseases Good seeds obtained from disease free plants are
expected to give better yield performance from the infected ones.
5. Free from mixtures the seeds used as planting material must be free from mixture
with other crops, used seeds and other foreign matters.

WAYS TO OBTAIN DISEASE- FREE STOCKS

1. Growing in disease-free areas to ensure freedom from seed-borne diseases, vegetable
should be grown in an arid and disease free area
during the dry season or grown under the constant
supervision of a well trained and experienced plant
pathologist . Seeds should not be harvested from
diseased fields and used for planting.
2. Sorting hand or mechanical sorting such as fanning and floating, light and shriveled
seeds which are likely disease carriers can be eliminated.
3. Seed treatment
Objectives
1. to kill pathogens in the seed ( seed disinfection)
2. to kill pathogens on the seed ( seed disinfestation)
3. to give post and pre emergence protection to young plant.
.
Seed disinfection soak the seeds in 0.8% acetic acid for 24 hours
. Seed disinfestation use mercuric chloride to kill fungi such as those causing anthracnose
and angular leaf spot of cucumber and the bacteria causing
bacterial spot of solanaceous vegetables.
. Seed protection some fungicides commonly used are captan and arasan
. Common insecticides are dieldrin and lindane are also used in treating seeds.
. Chemical protectant can be applied as a dust, a slurry or by pelletizing the seed.

SEED TREATMENT METHODS

KIND OF SEED

DISEASE

TREATMENT

TIME

Tomato, pepper

Bacterial spot

Hot water at 50c for 25

minutes

Before planting

Cabbage
Onion , tomato

Black rot
Damping -off

Mycostatin at 0.263 g per 5

grams of seeds

Before planting

Chinese cabbage
Cucumber, lettuce, eggplant,
pechay

Damping-off

Semesan, Arasan at 0.5 % of

wt. of seeds

2 days prior sowing

Ginger seed piece

Rhizome rot

Granosan , semesan at 2.25 g

per gal. of water
Dip seeds for 1.5 hours

Before planting

Irish potato

Seedpiece decay

Thiram, captan
Either as dust or dip

At Planting

Sweet potato

Black rot, seed decay

Mercuric chloride , 1:1000

Solution, soak for 20 minutes

At Planting

GROWING SEEDLINGS
STEPS:
Gather and mix
soil media
components

1 part garden soil

1 part organic materials
1 part sieve sand
1 part rice
hulls/sawdust

Soil
sterilizatio
n

1. Chemical
2. Heat

Seedbed
Preparation

Sowing

1 to 2 seeds per hill

Seedbox filled with lokong
Seedling trays
seedbeds
10 days after germination
Apply starter solution
1 tbsp. of 21-0-0 in 1 gal. of water
Hardening
7-10 days before
transplanting
Expose the seedling in extreme
Temperature ( too hot or too cold)

THANK YOU !