Effects of some chemical treatments on standard germination, field emergence and vigour in hybrid maize seeds

Correlation between physiological tests and field emergence in treated corn seeds

“…As shown in Table 2, GP showed the lowest correlation value, indicating that it was not the most suitable test to provide a reliable relationship with the emergence in the field, mainly regarding treated seeds. The same was reported by Baldini et al (2018) and Lovato et al (2005), who further stated that due to its near-optimal temperature and humidity, condition hardly found in the field, seed lots of Table 1. Mean values of moisture content (MC); germination between paper (GP); germination in sand (GS); accelerated aging (AA); modified accelerated aging (MAA); electrical conductivity (EC); cold test (CT); modified cold test (MCT); emergence in greenhouse (EG) and emergence in field (EF) of corn seeds of high (HIQ) and low initial quality (LIQ) belonging to four cultivars (Garra Viptera, Maximus TL TG VIPTERA, Formula TL, and Impacto) submitted to four industrial seed treatments According to Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test, means followed by the same uppercase letter in the column belong to the same group at 5% probability, while means followed by the same lowercase letters in the line do not differ from each other by the F-test at a 5% probability level (Yousof et al 2016).…”

“…Besides the use of high-quality seeds, to obtain a given crop density, it is indispensable to accurately calculate seeding rates, a process based on the results of the germination. However, since it is conducted under ideal environmental conditions, this test may be inefficient to account for seeds able germinate, but that fail to develop into viable plants in the field, where the characteristics of the substrate, humidity, and temperature are frequently unfavorable (Baldini et al 2018).For that reason, worldwide seed quality control systems simultaneously perform additional physiological evaluations, namely vigor tests, that simulate stressful conditions to have a more realistic prediction of crop emergence in the field (Lovato et al 2005, Baldini et al 2018). However, the widespread plantprotection operation of treating corn seeds with pesticides has been pointed out as a factor able to considerably interfere with seed and seedling performance (Yousof et al 2016), affecting, therefore, the precision of the estimations assessed through physiological tests.…”

“…For that reason, worldwide seed quality control systems simultaneously perform additional physiological evaluations, namely vigor tests, that simulate stressful conditions to have a more realistic prediction of crop emergence in the field (Lovato et al 2005, Baldini et al 2018). However, the widespread plantprotection operation of treating corn seeds with pesticides has been pointed out as a factor able to considerably interfere with seed and seedling performance (Yousof et al 2016), affecting, therefore, the precision of the estimations assessed through physiological tests.…”

Biochemical changes and physiological quality of corn seeds subjected to different chemical treatments and storage times

“…According to the cold test, the hybrid SHS4070 did not show significant differences regarding germination. Some studies confirmed the efficiency of this testing for assessing the variations in the level of vigor of corn seeds (Tonin et al, 2014;Baldini et al, 2018).…”

“…By the ninth month of storage, the treatment with clothianidin (SC) was much similar to the one with thiamethoxam, both with the lowest germination rates in the corresponding period. The non-ionic character of these molecules allows them to trespass the corn seed semipermeable membranes, thus facilitating their contact with the embryo and enabling toxic effects (Dias et al, 2014;Baldini et al, 2018).…”