The impact of damp water steam and chemical treating to the germination of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) seeds

Abstract

In Lithuania as well as in whole European Union general politics of agriculture and forest sectors is concerned on ecological processes. The number of ecological practices in commercial management of agriculture and forest sectors is throughout increase. One of the most widely applied measures to protect seeds from the damage caused by fungi is spreading treaters. Alternative is to use high temperature. All live organisms are destroyed in a high temperature environment. It is very important to find optimal treatment time of high temperature so that pathogenic organisms would be destroyed but germination characteristics of the seeds would remain unaffected. Investigation performed on 2009-2010 in Forest‘s Seeds and Plantings Quality Department laboratory and Siauliai Forest Enterprise nursery. We investigated how a damp water steam effects germination of Norway Spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) seeds. In laboratory control sample was affected by fungicide MaximStar 025 FS (2g/kg) and it’s germination was 90.5%. Thermally treated seeds germination varied between 95.9% and 82.35% depending on treatment time (1 s and 4 s respectively) in high temperature environment. Ground germination of chemicals treated seeds was about 44.9 %, whereas germination of seeds treated by damp water steam varied between 61.1% and 78.6%.