Seed Cultivation - Seed Quality
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
Related Pages
Planning For Seed Crops
Planning Annual & Biennial Seed Crops See Vegetable Seed Training Programme – Session 3 (Planning) Webinar for more information.
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This toolkit forms part of the Tyfu Cymru Intermediate Vegetable Seed Training Programme.
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Vegetable Seed Training Programme: Webinar 1 – Seed Sovereignty
Producing an open pollinated seed crop on your farm can improve the quality of your future crops, increase plant adaptation to local conditions, give you access to new varieties and new skills. Seed production can also bring an added income stream to…
2/2/2021 4:21:49 PM
Seed Training Programme - Webinar 3 Selection of crop for seed
This third session will look at the principle involved at the selection stage through to harvest. The session covers: Importance of population size to inbreeders/outbreeders The role of selection in seed production – how to determine what is “true-to…
8/4/2020 11:11:39 AM
Seed Training Programme - Webinar 2: Cultivation of trickier crops for seed
The second cultivation session builds on the first session and look at trickier crops – annuals that will readily cross-pollinate and biennials that require overwintering methods. The crops covered in this session are: Runner bean Broad bean Cucurbit…
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This session introduces the key principles and looks at what we would consider the easiest crops to cultivate for seed – annuals that self-pollinate or annuals with simple isolation and pollination requirements.
6/23/2020 2:17:11 PM
Seed Production Resources
The Gaia Foundation and Tyfu Cymru are working in partnership to deliver training in open pollinated vegetable seed production in 2020.
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