The Use of the IDS-Treatment on Southern Pine Seeds and its Effect on Seed Cost and Efficiency in the Seed Bed


The IDS-treatment ( I = incubation, D = drying, S = separation) is a method to remove filled-dead seed from a seed lot. It is based upon the principle that, when incubated for some period of time and subsequently dried, seeds lose the absorbed water at different rates depending on their viability. Under tightly controlled drying conditions, dead seed and live seed lose water absorbed during the incubation period at different rates, creating the opportunity to make a separation. Contrasting seed lot qualities of loblolly, slash, and pines were submitted to the IDS-treatment. Untreated and treated seeds of the same lot were sown in a split-plot design in two (2) bareroot nurseries. A completely randomized study was established in a container nursery. This seed treatment process may prove helpful for those bareroot nurseries that use precision sowing techniques and most container seedling nurseries. For the seed inventory managers, improving the poor germinating lots of the high genetic value seed, is now a "viable" alternative.
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Publication Forest Nursery Proceedings
Event Williamsburg, VA - 1994
Author J. B. McRae, U. Bergsten, and S. Lycksell
Published 1950/01/01
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