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THE USE OF SEED DRESSINGS CONTAINING γ‐BHC IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SUGAR‐BEET SEEDLINGS
Author(s) -
JONES F. G. W.,
HUMPHRIES K. P.
Publication year - 1954
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1954.tb01153.x
Subject(s) - sugar beet , biology , pest analysis , sugar , agronomy , seed treatment , field trial , toxicology , horticulture , germination , food science
From 1949 to 1952 field trials were made to determine the effect of seed dressings containing γ‐BHC, with and without the addition of organic mercurial compounds, upon the establishment of sugar‐beet seedlings. Most of the trials were made in fields where no serious pest problems were anticipated. The 1949 trials established the concentration of γ‐BHC non‐phytocidal to sugar‐beet seedlings. Later trials tested the effect on pre‐ and post‐singling plant populations of dressings applied to natural or rubbed seed sown at standardized rates. Parallel tests of dressed seed were made on farms representing a variety of soil types, It was found that the phytotoxiCity of γ‐BHC varied with season and soil type, but that a dressing containing 40 % was usually safe. In these trials, the benefits from seed dressing were, as a rule, slight. Generally the combined mercury‐γ‐BHC seed dressing gave the best pre‐singling stand of plants. Most of the improvement was attributable to the organic mercury rather than to the γ‐BHC, but where pest attacks occurred, γ‐BHC gave marked improvements in stand. Wireworm appeared to be the chief pest controlled: control of pygmy mangold beetle was only partial.