So what are the best seed treatment methods for soybean and wheat? Are you interested in treatment methods because you like to know what you eat, or perhaps you would like grow some crops for yourself? Now you can get the answer with the article of Insider Monkey published recently. These kind of seeds need to be treated somehow so that they can keep their health after being sown.
As a matter of fact if we thought that seed treatment is a new invention – well, we are mistaken. Seed treatment was used in the ancient Egypt, too. In those times, seeds were treated by soaking techniques with the use of onion or cypress sap in order to protect them from the pests in the soil. At the beginning of the 20th century people started to use new chemicals in seed treatment, such as copper sulfate solution, copper carbonate dust, or mercury. These chemical treatments nowadays refer to pesticides, hormones, and fungicides.
In order to get the best methods, Insider Monkey has gone through the publications and regulations concerning to agricultural development. Non-chemical and organic food is also increasing in these days, which is very important to be emphasized. Our health depends on what we eat – that’s why there is a tendency to research new development technologies.
We have picked three methods from Insider Monkey’s list for now: Cold plasma treatment, hot water treatment, and systemic fungicide treatment. Cold plasma treatment is not used widely, although it showed great results is seed treatment. It is about exposing seeds to UV radiation, radicals and some chemically active molecules that change and enhance some seed properties. It is very effective for winter wheat seeds. Hot water treatment is an old technique; it has been neglected since the use of chemical compounds. This method became revived for example in Switzerland and Netherlands. However it may have some disadvantages, such as drying of soaked seeds on a large scale, this method is inexpensive and has good results in seed treatment. The systemic fungicide treatment is actually not a new idea. The classic method contained copper, mercury and sulfur – all of them are harmful to the living world, so they were banned. The newer generation of these fungicides is less harmful. These treatments are usually the first ones to be chosen for soybean and wheat because of relatively low prices and general efficiency.
For further information, we recommend reading Insider Monkey’s article about the best seed treatment methods for soybean and wheat.
