Seed pelleting with plant nutrients on germination and some growth of seedling characteristics of small seed size of maize

Abstract

Although maize seeds with small size and large size are not genetically different, the seedlings of small seeds were smaller and weaker than those of larger size, and the seeds cannot be used in production. The objective of this study was, therefore, to investigate the effects of seed pelleting with plant nutrients on germination and some seedling growth parameters of maize with small seed size. The experiment was undertaken at the seed laboratory of the seed processing plant, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University. The seeds of four maize hybrids (SPP339, SPP999, SPP4261 and SPP4262) were used in this study. The seeds were screened on 20/64, 16/64 and 14/64 meshes, and the seeds that passed through 16/64 mesh but did not pass through 14/64 mesh were used in the experiment. The seeds were further embedded in vermiculite + hydroxyl propyl methylcellulose with each of two formulae of plant nutrients. A completely randomized design with 3 replications was used, and there were 100 seeds for each treatment in a replication. Comparison was made among large-seeded control, small-seeded control, pelleted seeds with formula 1 nutrients (3.8% (NH4)2SO4, 3.0% KH2PO4, 0.3% CaCl2, 0.3% MgSO4, 2.5% FeSO4, 0.3% ZnSO4and 2.5% (NH4)6Mo7O24) and pelleted seeds with formula 2 nutrients (7.6% (NH4)2SO4, 6.0% KH2PO4, 0.6% CaCl, 0.6% MgSO4, 5.0% FeSO4, 0.6% ZnSO4and 5.0% (NH4)6Mo7O24). The results indicated that the pelleted seeds with formula 2 nutrients tended to have higher field germination in the hybrids SPP333 and SPP99 than did the controls. The pelleted treatments of these hybrids tended to have higher seedling dry weight, leaf dry weight, and seedling height than did the small-seeded control, but these parameters were not statistically different from those of the large-seeded control. It has been concluded that plant nutrient pelleting of excessively small seeds is a possible means to increase seed quality of small seeds and the seeds can be used in production rather than used as grains. However, the concentration of plant nutrients should be optimum.