«AGRONOM» magazine. August 2020
Pre-sowing seed treatment is the first stage of work aimed at raising yield, and an agronomic technique that provides the young plant with everything it needs under an unfavorable temperature and moisture regime. Dressing and treating winter cereal seed with special fertilizers is an extremely responsible measure that affects plant growth and development in autumn, when there is a shortage of growth resources, moisture and warmth. Applying microelements and other biologically active substances to the seed surface is the most effective way of using them. Exactly this treatment supplies the plant with the most important macro- and microelements in the period from germination to switching to feeding from its own root system. Seed treatment with special fertilizers significantly helps plants endure adverse weather and preserve yield potential.
The time to prepare winter cereal seed for sowing is approaching. Right now agronomists face the question of which seed treatment fertilizers to choose for their farm. First of all the agronomist determines the set of problems that may arise during autumn vegetation and overwintering. The choice of special fertilizers and dressings able to solve them is the next step, because the plant must be protected from the most harmful factors and conditions within a particular farm or crop.
Today the market offers compositions that differ in composition and effect on the plant. When choosing a fertilizer for pre-sowing seed treatment, the potential of the variety or hybrid, the seed characteristics, the preceding crop and the sowing dates, optimal or late for the given zone, must be taken into account.
The form of nutrients and the content of biologically active substances are of great importance for the effectiveness of such compositions. The presence of phosphorus in the form of phosphite substantially strengthens plant resistance to fungal diseases. The use of biologically active compounds speeds up plant growth and development and promotes the accumulation of sugars for successful overwintering.
All fertilizers on the market recommended for pre-sowing seed treatment can be conditionally divided into three groups.
The first group – fertilizers containing a set of macro- and microelements (for example ECOLINE Cereal (Chelates)). Their task is to supply young plants with individual nutrients in the period from germination to switching to feeding from their own root system. Compositions of this kind work well with minimal protection and fertilization systems. When choosing such compositions, their composition must be taken into account, namely the presence of elements critically important for plant growth and development, in particular zinc and manganese. Zinc together with nitrogen speeds up the synthesis of auxins in the plant and stimulates fuller use by the plant of the reserve substances of the seed itself. Manganese promotes better uptake of nitrogen from the soil and accumulation of sugars and thereby ensures successful overwintering of winter crops under sharp temperature swings in autumn.
As for the form in which nutrients are present in such fertilizers, chelates ensure higher effectiveness.
The second group – fertilizers with phosphorus in the form of phosphite. Such compositions for pre-sowing seed treatment have proved themselves very well in production conditions (for example ECOLINE Phosphite (K)). They cannot replace a fungicidal dressing, but considerably improve the protection of the seedling from pathogens. This group of fertilizers stimulates root system development, which in the dry conditions of autumn lets the plant obtain moisture from deeper soil layers. Seed treatment with phosphite-containing fertilizers is already widely used in our country's agriculture. Thanks to their properties, phosphites are effective in all natural and climatic zones of Ukraine.
The third group – special fertilizers based on complexes of macro- and microelements combined with biologically active substances. The latter are usually synthesized by plants themselves. However, as a result of weather conditions or other stress factors this process in plants slows down and they lag in growth and development. Such lag adversely affects plants in the overwintering period. It has been scientifically established that plants are able to take up biologically active substances of exogenous (external) origin. For treating seed that will be sown later than the optimal dates, after not the best preceding crops or in unfavorable weather conditions, exactly such compositions must be chosen.
ECOORGANIC LLC is one of the leading domestic producers of special fertilizers. Among them, compositions containing biologically active substances, amino acids and phytohormones, are notable for the highest effectiveness.
Amino acids are derivatives of carboxylic acids in whose hydrocarbon radical one or several hydrogen atoms are replaced by an amino group. In the course of ontogeny the plant independently synthesizes all the amino acids it needs, which are the building material for more complex substances. Inhibition of amino acid synthesis due to certain stress factors is exactly the negative reaction that restrains or for some time stops plant growth and development. In such cases the supply of free amino acids to the plant from outside improves its condition.
Phytohormones are organic compounds of various chemical nature produced by specialized tissues of higher plants. Phytohormones are an important component of the regulation systems of higher plant ontogeny. They exert a regulatory influence on ontogenetic processes and on plant growth and development. These compounds are concentrated mainly in actively growing tissues, in the zones of root and stem apices. Foliar use of phytohormones in crop production is an effective measure that raises crop yields.
Since 2017 ECOORGANIC has offered the GROS Rootgrowth composition on the Ukrainian market, which is extremely effective for pre-sowing seed treatment of various crops, in particular winter cereals. The well-chosen composition and forms of active ingredients (amino acids and phosphorus in the form of phosphite) strengthen the growth energy of the seedling and young plant, and the ratio of auxins to cytokinins intensifies cell division in meristem tissues. Treating seed before sowing with GROS Rootgrowth affects the plant as follows:
1) provides faster growth of the root system and formation of powerful aboveground mass;
2) raises resistance to disease agents;
3) forms a higher content of dry matter, in particular sugars, needed for successful overwintering of plants.
ECOORGANIC has developed and tested several schemes for using special fertilizers of its own production for pre-sowing seed treatment of winter cereals:
Maintenance: ECOLINE Cereal (Chelates) 0.5–1.0 l/t (to optimize plant nutrition in the early development stages on poor soils with minimal fertilization).
Basic: ECOLINE Cereal (Chelates) 1.0 l/t + ECOLINE Phosphite (K) 0.5 l/t (to optimize plant nutrition in the early development stages and raise resistance to disease agents).
Intensive: GROS Rootgrowth 1.0–1.5 l/t or GROS Rootgrowth 1.0 l/t + ECOLINE Phosphite (K) 0.5 l/t (to obtain even seedlings with late sowing dates, speed up plant growth and development, and raise resistance to disease agents) .
The effectiveness of using such compositions is illustrated in the photos:
Winter wheat. K – control without treatment, 1 – seed treatment with GROS Rootgrowth 1.0 l/t, 2 – seed treatment with GROS Rootgrowth 1.5 l/t. Hlevakha Variety Testing Station, Hlevakha, Vasylkiv district, Kyiv region. 2019
Winter barley. K – control (farm scheme), 1 – seed treatment with ECOLINE Universal Seed (Chelates) 0.5 l/t (analogue of ECOLINE Cereal (Chelates)) + GROS Rootgrowth 1.0 l/t. Zolota Rybka farm, Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region. 2019
Winter wheat. K – control without treatment, 1 – seed treatment with GROS Rootgrowth 1.5 l/t. Laboratory trial. Kyiv, May 2020