Procedures For Pea Crop

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 9

Procedures For Pea Crop

It has been decided that as a general principle clean pea seed for sowing this year should be retained in the district where it was produced.

This was one of the decisions of the bacterial blight committee which met in Christchurch again earlier in the month. Future plans for the control of blight in peas were discussed at the meeting. A statement issued after the meeting says: "The selection of seed lines will be discussed between the trade and the Department* of Agriculture on a district basis. The highest category of seed will be the produce of lines which have

tleen autumn sown and which show no infection. Steps have been taken to ensure that seed in this category is fully utilised for further multiplication. There is not sufficient of this standard available, however, so the next choice is between lines which showed a limited number of infected areas when autumn sown or no infection when spring sown. In addition, it is strongly recommended that all sowings (particularly those intended for seed purposes) be straight seed lines. This season a considerable quantity of potentially clean seed has been lost by clean lines being blended with infected seed. “Cleaning of Machinery: The importance of thorough cleaning and disinfecting of machinery in the prevention of the spread of bacterial blight was again stressed. Growers and operators of seed dressing plants handling certified pea seed and top category uncertified lines are required to sign a certificate stating that harvesting machinery and machine dressing equipment were cleaned down before harvesting or machine dressing began. “Tagging of Seed: The produce of areas inspected and found clean will again be tagged as for last season, except that a private grower is now entitled to have the whole of the produce of his crop tagged. “Testing of Samples: An additional check for seed lines this year is the testing of samples taken at har-

vest to enable the result to be available before the seed is actually planted. “Isolation: On the question of isolation for next season’s sowings, the following recommendations were | made: “(a) That there be only field or garden peas on the one farm. “(b) That the distance between field pea crops and garden pea crops on adjacent properties be 10 chains. “(c) If there are two types of peas on the one farm then such crops should be inspected at least twice and the 10 chain isolation should apply. “It was also recommended that there be an interval of two years between pea crops. “Pea Straw: A warning is issued about straw from infected pea crops. This should on no account be fed out on areas to be used for pea seed crops.

“Crop Inspection: Inspection of pea crops will be continued next season and it is hoped that merchants can nominate selected seed lines of field peas and the crops sown with these lines

so that priority can be given to them by inspecting officers. “A further meeting will be held in June to review the position.”