GERMINATION OF SEEDS

Southland Times, Issue 23782, 1 April 1939, Page 19

GERMINATION OF SEEDS

EXPLANATION BY OFFICER EXPERIMENTS AT NORTH ISLAND STATION Information on the subject of seed testing at the Department of Agriculture’s seed-testing station at Palmerston North was contained in a letter received by the Southland provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union at its meeting yesterday. The officer in charge of the station wrote that there appeared to have been some misunderstanding of matters relating to seed testing, and the following explanations were therefore offered.

In the first place, the ultra-violet ray test was separate and distinct from the germination test. It was merely a means of recognizing strains of ryegrass at the seedling stage, and was not used in any standard germination tests. Secondly the contention that seeds would germinate better in the soil than in the laboratory was 'quite without foundation and as far -as he was aware had never been supported by actual germination counts.- In an .extensive series of soil and laboratory counts, laboratory figures were shown to be invariably higher than those obtained under ideal conditions in soil.

It was also pointed out that low germinating lines of ryegrass from Southland germinating 12 per cent, on actual soil counts in plots, had, in one year after sowing, provided quite a fair sole of grass. This and other similar experiences suggested that in general perennial ryegrass of high germination was sown at rates in excess, of that required for pasture formation, although the excess could be justified as an insurance against partial failure through circumstances unrelated to the seed itself.