Seed Production of Vegetable, Tuber and Spice Crops (2+1)

Precautions in Seed Treatment

• Most products used in the treatment of seeds are harmful to humans, but they can also be harmful to seeds. Extreme care is required to ensure that treated seed is never used as human or animal food. To minimise this possibility, treated seed should be clearly labelled as being dangerous, if consumed. The temptation to use unsold treated seed for human or animal feed can be avoided if care is taken to treat only the quantity for which sales are assured.
• Care must also be taken to treat seed at the correct dosage rate; applying too much or too little material can be as damaging as never treating at all. Seed with a very high moisture content is very susceptible to injury when treated with some of the concentrated liquid products.
• If the seeds are to be treated with bacterial cultures also, the order in which seed treatments should be done shall be as follows
1. Chemical treatments
2. Insecticide and fungicide treatments
3. Special treatments