Ready – Set – Grow!

SEED TREATING

Treating seed that gets put into the ground to grow a crop is nothing new.  Seed treatments have been utilized for many centuries. What is new in the game is applying nutrient seed dressings. Ensuring that the seed has the proper nutrients available early in its life cycle allows for maximum early season growth for that plant.

In the past, the biggest limitation to expanding seed treatment options has been the application of multiple products on seed.  With todays modern seed treaters and product formulations, we have the ability to apply up to 5 or 6 products at one time on the seed.  This has opened the door to expanding our seed treatment options into applying not only fungicidal and insecticidal seed treatments but also applying nutrients and bio-stimulants.

SEED PRIMING

Nutrient seed priming is a topic that has been explored now for a few decades.  There are a couple reasons that seed priming has become a popular topic of discussion.  The agronomical benefit of seed nutrient priming ensures that critical micronutrients are close to the seed and available for quick uptake.  This will ensure quick germination. Allowing the plant to get its first leaves established and taking in sunlight for photosynthesis.  Increasing plant size early on in the growing year will allow that plant to better handle stress.

One of the popular nutrients for seed priming has been zinc.  Zinc applied on seed for early season uptake has shown great success in giving the crop a jump on germination and early season growth. As yields increase, there is recorded dilution of seed nutrients occurring.  This can cause concern in germination vigor of the seed.

If we examine the economics of seed priming, it usually requires a significantly lower investment when compared to soil applied nutrients.  This is especially true when the grower is already treating the seed with a fungicidal seed treatment.  Here in western Canada, true micronutrient deficiencies are incredibly variable across our soil and it’s a challenge to apply products just to the affected acres.  One way to get around this issue is utilizing seed priming and applying nutrients right to the seed.

To get more information on the benefits of seed treatments, please give your local SynergyAG rep a call and find out how we can work with you to get your crop off to the right start.