Coating seeds with fertilizer: A promising technique for forage crop seeds

Abstract

Fertilization is not a common management practice at pasture establishment in Brazil. Seed coating technology can be a useful approach to ensure the availability of nutrients to plants during the early stages of development. Thus, the objective of this work was to investigate the incorporation of liquid fertilizer in seeds of Stylosanthes and to evaluate the effect of this technology on seed quality. Mastermins® fertilizer was applied to the last layer of the binder material coating on the seed and Polyseed 76F polymer adhesive was thereafter applied onto the fertilizer. Physiological and biometric analyses of the seeds were carried out. Six fertilizer doses (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mL.100 g seeds-1) were tested, with and without adhesive. The control group comprised of uncoated seeds. The method provided a significant increase in the concentration of mineral nutrients supplemented to the seeds, and the use of the adhesive polymer further increased the concentration of minerals. The liquid fertilizer had no effect on seed emergence and emergence speed but influenced germination and germination speed. The results also showed that fertilizer doses higher than 10 mL.100 g seeds-1 did not provide higher dry mass accumulation in Campo Grande Stylosanthes.