Swollen wheat seed

Bramble

Member
Drilled some wheat after grass (ploughed, cultipress, drilled with Rapid) and about 30-50% of it hasn’t germinated, it’s just sat there and swollen up, looks like it’s rotting. Any ideas why or what may have caused it??

The headland, which was drilled last, looks a lot better that the middle of the field. It was treated with Liberator. Agronomist says not pre-em damaged, very few slugs. Seed company says the batch tested at 91% germination
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
When was it drilled? I’d say it could be too dry when germinating as after grass leys are always dry. Then it’s rotted enough to knacker germination and now it’s got wet and swelled. There would be more compaction on the headland and probably a lot better seedbed
 

Bramble

Member
No seed left, it’s not really been that wet this autumn, probably didn’t rain for a couple weeks after is was drilled (early Nov). Could be as @tr250 suggests, but it turned over fairly damp.

Will have to re-drill it probably, will look at it in late Jan
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
No seed left, it’s not really been that wet this autumn, probably didn’t rain for a couple weeks after is was drilled (early Nov). Could be as @tr250 suggests, but it turned over fairly damp.

Will have to re-drill it probably, will look at it in late Jan
I haven’t seen it in conventional as working the ground usually drys it out so much that it waits for rain. I’ve seen it direct drilling wheat into grass leys when it’s rock hard but still has enough moisture to rot it but not enough to germinate
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
No seed left, it’s not really been that wet this autumn, probably didn’t rain for a couple weeks after is was drilled (early Nov). Could be as @tr250 suggests, but it turned over fairly damp.

Will have to re-drill it probably, will look at it in late Jan
hindsight i know but it always pays to keep some representative samples back for awhile.
 

homefarm

Member
Location
N.West
Seed vigour is a thing some seed companies used to promote.

I would say it was very evident this year with various seed lots we had, We had some Costello which was amazing, shot out of the ground everywhere we sowed it and has grown like stink ever since.
There is a distinct line where we switched to Graham which was a much lower vigour lot, not the variety though as we had two lots of Graham and the other lot was OK.

The Costello was possibly the best seed I have ever sown but difficult to understand why?
 

Hawkes

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
devon
we dd some home saved and single purpose treated (fountain) Graham this year. It went in in good conditions. It then rained, a lot, for a fortnight. One 4ha field has come up poorly, one field of 5 ha has almost completely failed. Last week I got a handful from heap untreated and a handful from left over treated seed and put it on a tray on kitchen roll to do a germination test. Crude but useful.
E119CD8F-27AB-4EFD-8BF2-607A1A4BCE6A.jpg
IMG_1208.JPG

This does make me wonder what effect the treatment has had on the seed !
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
What was the moisture of the grain when treated? How has it been stored since? Both could affect how a seed treatment could affect germination.

From your pictures it looks pretty clear what effect the seed treatment has had in your case!
 

Hawkes

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
devon
What was the moisture of the grain when treated? How has it been stored since? Both could affect how a seed treatment could affect germination.

From your pictures it looks pretty clear what effect the seed treatment has had in your case!
It was treated at 15%. We dried all the wheat his year in batch drier but it is pretty ancient so the temp never gets high enough to affect germination. The untreated sample is taken from the same pile as the treated was. Stored on the floor in our grain store, it has cooled down ok. That is why it seems odd to me.
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
It was treated at 15%. We dried all the wheat his year in batch drier but it is pretty ancient so the temp never gets high enough to affect germination. The untreated sample is taken from the same pile as the treated was. Stored on the floor in our grain store, it has cooled down ok. That is why it seems odd to me.
Thanks. I’d be asking the person who treaded the seed about it, something has clearly gone wrong somewhere.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
we dd some home saved and single purpose treated (fountain) Graham this year. It went in in good conditions. It then rained, a lot, for a fortnight. One 4ha field has come up poorly, one field of 5 ha has almost completely failed. Last week I got a handful from heap untreated and a handful from left over treated seed and put it on a tray on kitchen roll to do a germination test. Crude but useful.View attachment 1004255View attachment 1004256
This does make me wonder what effect the treatment has had on the seed !

i never add seed treatment to any home saved seed for that reason . . .
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
I would say that would be a normal result from treated seed. In my experience cereal seed treatments always result in lower vigour in tests and in the field.
We regularly keep leftover treated seed for a couple years and haven’t seen anything that dramatic when testing it the same way.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
I need to share a photo of my roadside "low seed rate experiment", 12mth old SPD treated seed, next to new seed..
Sure it will be fine, but frustrating and just another unwelcome hassle.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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