Seed Treatment

PGG Wrightson Seeds is a leading provider of seed treatment products to the New Zealand forage seed market and has been for over 50 years.

What is a Seed Treatment?

Seed treatment is the process of applying additives to seed such as insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, nutrients and biological agents to provide plant protection and growth enhancement benefits during the seedling establishment period.

The first four to six weeks after sowing is a critical period in the life of a new plant, as seedlings emerge and develop their physical make up. Sowing treated seed provides protection during the germination and establishment stages when emerging seedlings are most vulnerable to attack from invasive insect pests and disease pathogens.

Seed treatment can improve seed germination, seedling emergence, plant vigour, stand establishment and total yield, helping to ensure the crop or pasture is on its way to reaching its full genetic potential.

Benefits of Seed Treatment

Insurance policy

Reduces risk and helps safeguard investment in forage seed. The cost of failed pasture establishment can be in excess of $2,000/ha with lost production and re-planting costs. In a forage crop situation, the loss of plants can significantly reduce potential crop yield, as well as increasing the overall feed cost.

Agronomic benefit

Seedlings protected by seed treatment are in a better position to withstand environmental stresses, including pest and disease pressure. Seed treatment helps maximise seedling establishment and nurture early plant growth, helping ensure the crop or pasture is in a position to reach its full yield potential.

Targeted protection

Seed-applied chemicals are target specific against a range of economically damaging insect pests and diseases during the plant establishment period.

Integrated pest management

Complements traditional broadacre crop protection methods and other new plant protection technology such as endophytes, as part of an integrated pest management approach.

Reduced environmental impact

Delivers very small quantities of chemical active ingredient to the soil in comparison to broadacre applications. Chemicals are rigorously tested to ensure they have no detrimental effects on the environment.

Improves sowing accuracy

The addition of seed coating material to seed can increase weight and size to provide a more accurate and uniform spread of seed in aerial oversowing applications and enable uniform plant spacing in precision drilling.

User-friendly

Reduces the need to handle chemicals on farm. It also allows more flexibility when weather conditions make it difficult to apply broadacre crop protection products.

SEED TREATMENT AT PGG WRIGHTSON SEEDS

PGG Wrightson Seeds is a leading provider of seed treatment products to the New Zealand forage seed market and has been for over 50 years. We have a range of filmcote treatments and seed coatings, providing early crop protection solutions across forage brassica, forage grass, legume and herb seed. We have three well-established brands: Ultrastrike®, Superstrike® and Prillcote®. Our seed treatment products are applied to an extensive range of cultivars from the PGG Wrightson Seeds and Agricom forage brands, as well as cultivars from other seed companies.