Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Agriculture is an ever-changing industry. Improved technologies and farming practices have helped to increase the amount of food that production agriculture has been able to produce to feed the growing world population. However, there are still issues that cause concern within the agriculture industry. One of these issues is seed carry-over from year to year. If soybean seed is not used, it must be incinerated (burned), buried, or planted at high volumes. Recent studies have indicated that there may be a potential to carry excess soybean seed over to the next cropping season if the soybean seed is treated with a fungicide or fungicide-insecticide mixture before being put into storage. The objective of this study was to determine whether treating soybeans with a fungicide before putting them into storage could preserve the viability and vigor of the seed and slow seed deterioration. There were five treatment groups for the three different varieties of soybeans. The active ingredients in the treatments used were 1) fluxapyroxad, 2) mefenoxam/fludioxonil, 3) thiabendazole, 4) pyroclostrobin, and 5) control. After treatment, the seeds were packaged and stored in three different storage environments: cold storage, laboratory storage, and warehouse storage, where temperature and relative humidity were monitored. The seeds were stored for periods of two months, four months, and six months. Upon removal of the seed from storage, the seeds were tested for seed viability (using the “ragdoll” germination method) and for seed vigor (using the accelerated aging method). Data was analyzed to determine whether there were any significant interactions between seed variety, storage environment, and fungicide treatment for both seed viability and seed vigor. For seed viability, variety was the only significant factor for several time periods. For seed vigor, there was a significant interaction between environment and variety. In particular, one variety had very low seed viability and vigor throughout the study. The two other varieties had similar germination percentages for all storage periods. Unlike previous studies, this study was not able to find a significant treatment effect between the active ingredients in the fungicides used. However, if seed deterioration rate can be slowed, it may be possible for soybean seed to be carried over to the next cropping season if it is a variety with a high germination rate that is stored in a cold storage environment like a walk-in cooler. Many farmers and individuals within the agriculture industry stand to benefit from having a technique or method that could allow some soybean seed to be carried over until the next cropping season.

Year manuscript completed

2017

Year degree awarded

2017

Author's Keywords

Fungicide Seed Treatment, Seed Storage, Seed Viability, Seed Vigor, Storage Environment, Soybean

Degree Awarded

Master of Science

Department

Agriculture

College/School

Hutson School of Agriculture

Thesis Advisor

David Ferguson

Committee Chair

David Ferguson

Committee Member

Iin Handayani

Committee Member

Brian Parr

Committee Member

Michelle Santiago

Committee Member

Alyx Shultz

Document Type

Thesis - Murray State Access only

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