Ohio State University Extension Bulletin

Seed Treatment

Bulletin 638


Definition Of Treated Seed

The term "treated" means given an application of a pesticide or subjected to a process designed to reduce, control or repel disease organisms, insects, or other pests that attack seed or seedlings grown from treated seed.

Seed Normally Treated

The kinds of seed that are normally treated with one or more pesticides are corn, peanuts, cotton, sorghum, wheat, oats, rye, barley, millet, soybeans (under some conditions), pine tree and most vegetable seed.

Pests Commonly Associated With Seed

Diseases: (a) Seed rot-rotting of seed before germination. (b) Damping-off and seedling blight--soft rot of stem tissues near ground level and water soaking of seedling tissues. (c) Seedling wilt--gray coloration starting at the leaf tips and extending rapidly to the whole leaf, causing complete collapse of seedlings in 24 to 28 hours. (d) Root rot--water soaking, browning and sloughing of rootless. (e) Loose and covered smut of small grains.

Disease Organisms: (a) Pythium species, (b) Fusarium, (c) Diplodia, (d) Penicillium, (e) Helminthosporium, (f) Ustilago (smut), and (g) Rhizoctonia.

Cereal Grain Insects: Rice Weevil--Found in all grains, it is the most common and most destructive of the stored grain insects. A small snout beetle, it flies and sometimes infests grain in the field before harvest. The larva burrows into the heart of the kernel where it feeds and passes through the pupa stage. It emerges as an adult, cutting a small hole through the kernel (weevil exit hole).


Back | Forward | Table of Contents