Viability and vigor of soybean seeds as a result of industrial seed treatment and stored in different environments

Abstract

The industrial seed treatment (IST) of soybeans is an economically recommended technique in agricultural production, providing protection against pests and initial pathogens. However, the real effects of pesticides about the quality of soybean seeds are still little known, since the adoption of the system is still recent by soybean farmers. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physiological quality of soybean seeds, treated or not, with insecticide/ fungicide new mixtures and stored for 240 days in a non-controlled and controlled environment. The completely randomized design was used, distributed in a 5 x 2 x 6 factorial scheme with four replications. The plot treatments consisted of soybean seeds belonging to the cultivar M - 7739 IPRO, treated with six different insecticide/ fungicide mixtures {(Cruiser®); (Amulet®); (MaximAdvanced®); (Cruiser®+ MaximAdvanced®); (MaximAdvanced® + Amulet®); (untreated control)}, stored in two environments {(laboratory – without control and cold room – with control (10 ± 2 ºC,45± 2% UR)} for eight months of storage with five evaluation times (0; 60; 120; 180 and 240days). The following tests were carried out: water content, germination, first count, seedling length and seedling dry mass. It was found that the chemical treatments negatively affect the germination potential of seeds, especially after 120 days of storage, regardless of the environment.Thiamethoxamand Thiamethoxam + Metalaxil; Tabendazole; Fludioxonil after storage provided the biggest reductions in seed viability and vigor after 240 days of storage. The cold room environment provides better conditions for the conservation of the germinative potential of soybean seeds.