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a Dep. of Botany, Univ. of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
b Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Inst., Univ. of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa
c Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091
* Corresponding author (bhamman{at}postino.up.ac.za)
| ABSTRACT |
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Abbreviations: CWT, controlled water table FE, final emergence T50, time to 50% emergence
| INTRODUCTION |
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There are a number of laboratory tests with which soybean seed quality can be evaluated (Association of Official Seed Analysts, 1983; Loeffler et al., 1988; International Seed Testing Associaton, 1995). However, to date, no single test can claim to accurately relate performance in the field to seed quality when conditions are less than favorable (TeKrony and Egli, 1977; Johnson and Wax, 1978). The predictive ability of seed quality tests appears to be directly related to the condition of the seedbed environment (Egli and TeKrony, 1996). Knowledge of the precise causes of emergence failure and their relative importance is lacking, and would identify those factors in the soil environment which need to be countered or modified if emergence is to be successfully predicted and achieved. Such knowledge may also contribute to the development of improved vigor tests with which to identify seedlots most likely to be tolerant of adverse soil conditions.
Emergence responses to seedbed conditions have previously been examined primarily in prevailing field conditions, as opposed to controlled conditions (Hegarty, 1979; Halmer and Bewley, 1984; Finch-Savage and Pill, 1990). Few attempts have been made to distinguish between the effects of the seedbed environment, seed quality, or soilborne pathogens on germination sensu stricto, and on preemergent growth. In fact, the two terms are often erroneously used interchangeably, yet the two are biochemically distinct phases of growth (Perino and Côme, 1991), with potentially different responses to specific environmental conditions. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the nature of the relationship between components of the seedbed environment and seed quality, and their effect on soybean seedling emergence. Postgerminative, preemergent seedling growth in particular was examined by comparing the emergence from seeds planted dry or pregerminated. Nonemerged seeds and seedlings were also exhumed for evaluation after FE had been reached.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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20 and 30°C. Soil moisture was maintained at a constant -0.005 MPa with a controlled water table (CWT) irrigation system (Buxton et al., 1994). This is an automatic subirrigation system that consists of a capillary mat placed above a constant water level in a reservoir. The amount of water contained in the mat is determined by the mat's vertical distance above the water table. Because of the nature of the CWT system, water entered the seedling trays from the bottom, and moved up through the soil, thereby eliminating the crusting that may occur when watered from the top. Seedling emergence responses to the treatments applied in this study were also therefore not confounded by fluctuations in the moisture level of the soil. Soil was sampled periodically to verify that the moisture content did indeed remain constant both over time and across treatments [variation was less than ±50 g kg-1 (dry mass basis)]. The trays were partially filled with soil that was allowed to absorb water and reach moisture equilibrium with the mat prior to planting. The seed were planted on the wet soil and covered with dry soil to the desired planting depth.
Treatments
Six seedlots were used, all having commercially acceptable levels (>80%) of standard germination, but exhibiting a range in seed vigor (Table 1). Seed was free of seedborne pathogens, as determined by plating surface sterilized seed onto acidified potato-dextrose agar. The standard germination and vigor tests (accelerated aging, cold test, and conductivity) were performed according to the procedures outlined in the rules for testing seed (International Seed Testing Associaton, 1995; Association of Official Seed Analysts, 1998) and by Loeffler et al. (1988).
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Seeds were planted into sterile and nonsterile soil. Nonsterile soil was topsoil (Maury silt loam: fine, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudalfs) collected from a field at Spindletop Research Farm at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, where soybean had been grown the previous three growing seasons to provide adequate populations of soilborne pathogens. The soil was assayed by plating a soil dilution series onto media selective for Pythium, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, and Phytophthora spp. (Dhingra and Sinclair, 1995). The number of fungal propagules isolated were 4000, 98000, 22000, and 5000 colony-forming units g-1 soil, respectively. These levels were well above those suggested as providing a suitable level of disease pressure (P. Vincelli, 1996, personal communication). Greenhouse soil mixed with sand in a 2:1 ratio (v/v) was microwaved according to the instructions of Ferriss (1984) in order to create sterile conditions. The soil was assayed for pathogens as described above after microwaving, to confirm sterility.
Seed was planted at a depth of 25 (shallow) and 60 mm (deep).
Data Collected
Seedlings were considered emerged when cotyledons were free of the soil (Stage VE, Fehr and Caviness, 1977). Emergence counts were taken every 8 h after the first seedlings emerged. Once the FE stage had been reached, seedlings were exhumed from the soil (soil in trays was sifted, and seed and seedlings were removed), and nonemerged seedlings were classified as either stunted (seedlings had stunted hypocotyls but were otherwise normal-looking), abnormal, or dead. It was impossible to distinguish between those seeds which were dead and those which had germinated but grown no further in those treatments involving dry-planted seed, and so they were combined. Pregerminated seeds that had grown no further after planting were included with the abnormal seedlings.
Soil temperatures were monitored with 10 thermocouples positioned at planting depth in randomly selected trays, and the average temperature over 2 h (measured every 5 min) was recorded with a LI-Cor 1000 data logger (Li-Cor Inc., Lincoln, NE). The Gompertz equation (Tipton, 1984; Gan et al., 1996), was used to describe cumulative emergence as a function of thermal time, using 10°C as the base temperature (Enken, 1959). Regression analysis was done, with all r2 > 0.98. Time to 50% emergence (T50) was calculated from the regression equations.
Soil moisture retention curves were obtained for both sterile and nonsterile soils from the Soil Analysis Laboratory in the Agronomy Department, University of Kentucky. Soil moisture concentrations were determined by drying at 130°C for 24 h (dry mass basis).
Statistical Analysis
The experimental design was a split-split-split-plot with main plots arranged in a randomized complete block with two replications. The main plots were soil treatments, subplots were planting depths, sub-subplots were pregerminated vs. dry seed, and sub-sub-subplots were seed vigor levels. Significant differences between treatments were determined using the LSD procedure. Spatial limitations in the greenhouse made it necessary to replicate in time, with the main plots conducted sequentially.
Field Experiment
The field emergence experiment was conducted on Spindletop Research Farm at the University of Kentucky. Nongerminated seed of the same six seedlots used in the greenhouse experiment (Table 1) were sown (50 seed per seedlot) 30 mm deep in a single row, in a seedbed prepared by conventional tillage practices on a Maury silt loam soil. The exact position of each sown seed was marked. There were four replications of each seedlot in a randomized complete block design. Final emergence counts were taken after emergence had stopped, and the nonemerged seed and seedlings were exhumed and categorized as described for the greenhouse experiment.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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The emergence response of seedlots within a vigor group was similar. Consequently, the effects of the various treatments were averaged across seedlots within vigor levels.
The capillary mat system successfully maintained soil moisture content at a constant -0.005 MPa, and there was no crusting.
As anticipated, the analysis of variance indicated that almost all interactions were significant, and therefore comparisons were made among individual treatment means.
Seed Vigor
Under ideal conditions (sterile soil and shallow plantings), FE was high and did not differ significantly among seedlots of different vigor levels (Fig. 1)
. The introduction of stress into the seedbed environment (i.e., nonsterile soil or deep plantings) resulted in larger and significant differences among vigor levels. The largest difference was always between the low- and medium- or high-vigor seedlots. The advantage for the high- and medium-vigor lots was significant in the shallow planting in nonsterile soil, and in both the sterile and nonsterile soil in the deep planting for dry and pregerminated seeds. The largest advantage occurred in the most stressful situationdeep planting of dry seeds in nonsterile soil.
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Soilborne Pathogens
Final seedling emergence was always lower in nonsterile soil than in sterile soil (Fig. 1), irrespective of the planting depth, the vigor level of the seedlots, or whether seeds were planted dry or pregerminated. However, FE of the low-vigor seedlot was reduced more by the nonsterile soil than the medium- and high-vigor seedlots, and the effect was larger on dry seed and in deep plantings.
The T50s of the deep plantings were usually larger than those from the shallow plantings (Fig. 2) . The FE in sterile soil was not related to T50 when high- or medium-vigor seed was used, but there was a trend (not significant) for lower emergence at large T50s for low-vigor seedlots. In nonsterile soil however, FE decreased as T50 increased, for all three vigor levels, with the largest effect at the low vigor level.
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When pathogens are involved, the rate of emergence is related to two aspects of the system: the period during preemergent growth during which the disease process takes place, and the host activity during this period. Since host response to pathogen challenge is an active process in most systems, it would be expected that conditions which limit the general metabolic activity of the host might also limit its ability to respond to the pathogen (Gleason, 1985). If a seed can be killed by a pathogen only if the attack occurs before a particular stage of preemergent development, then a seed which reaches that stage more quickly should be exposed to attack for a shorter period of time (Ferriss and Baker, 1990). Shortening the period of potential pathogen attack should logically result in a lower probability that the pathogen will kill the seedling. In an environment free of pathogens (sterile soil, Fig. 2), little effect of emergence speed on percentage emergence would be expected, since no pathogen inoculum would be present to impose a developmental finish line (Ferriss and Baker, 1990). This would explain the smaller reductions in FE due to pathogens when high-vigor seed was planted, or when seed was planted shallow (Fig. 1 and 2). Both the deeper planting depth, and low seed vigor imposed a time disadvantage on the developing seedlings, which fell prey to the pathogens present in the nonsterile soil more frequently, compared with their counterparts in sterile soil. A similar response was demonstrated in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Lafond and Fowler (1989), who found that increased planting depth increased the time to emergence, resulting in poorer seedling development. Slow emergence in corn (Zea mays L.) was also noticed by Stewart et al. (1990) to predispose the crop to disease and adverse environmental conditions.
Preemergent Seedling Growth
It is entirely possible that a planted seed will germinate, yet still fail to emerge from the soil. Indeed, there are a number of instances involving studies on a range of vegetable crops which assigned the cause of emergence losses to the failure of seedlings to grow under the soil surface, and not to germination failure (Halmer and Bewley, 1984). For example, retrieval experiments covering a range of moisture and soil conditions of calabrese (Brassica oleracea L.), carrot (Daucus carota L.), onion (Allium cepa L.) and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), established that virtually all viable seed sown did germinate (Hegarty, 1979; Durrant, 1980). The question therefore arises as to which is more important when determining causes for poor emergence in soybean: failure to germinate, or failed postgerminative growth?
Each treatment in our emergence study was therefore applied to seeds planted both pregerminated and dry. In those instances where seeds were pregerminated, radicle length at planting was already 1 mm, so it was only the preemergent growth stage that was under investigation. Seeds planted dry on the other hand, had to germinate prior to going through a preemergent growth stage and emerging. Thus, the question of whether lack of emergence is due to failed germination, poor preemergent growth, or a combination of the two, could be directly addressed.
As a group, pregerminated seedlings consistently had higher levels of emergence (Fig. 1), but differences between pregerminated and dry seed were significant only for the low-vigor seedlots in nonsterile soil or in the deep planting in sterile soil. It was to be expected that planting seed pregerminated would result in greater numbers of emergent seedlings, since the dead seeds in the seedlots were obviously eliminated. The low-vigor seedlots had lower germination (Table 1), so the advantage for the pregerminated seeds was larger in those seed lots.
Planting pregerminated seeds in this study however, did not eliminate emergence failure. For example, of the seedlings pregerminated before planting 60 mm deep in nonsterile soil, 19 to 39% failed to emerge (Fig. 1). Even when soil was sterile, up to 13% still did not emerge. Obviously, failure to grow at all after germination, or poor preemergent growth, contributed to reductions in emergence. Most of the exhumed seedlings were either abnormal or failed to grow after planting pregerminated seeds in both the sterile and nonsterile soil and for all vigor levels (Fig. 3) . Formation of stunted seedlings did not seem to play a significant role in emergence failure.
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Our results clearly demonstrate the advantage for high-vigor seeds in stressful seed bed environments, thus confirming the results of Egli and TeKrony (1996), based on the comparison of a large number of field experiments. The advantage for high-vigor seed seemed to be independent of the source of stress, existing when stress was provided by pathogens or by deep plantings. Stress-induced emergence failure was a result of both a deficiency in preemergent growth, and a lack of germination or growth after germination, which was more important in nonsterile soils. Rapid emergence, whether from high-vigor seed or from shallow plantings, contributed to high levels of emergence in nonsterile field soils. Efforts to improve emergence should probably focus on the initial stages of growth immediately after radicle protrusion, or on the processes that trigger an abnormal preemergent type of growth that prevents emergence.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| NOTES |
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Received for publication April 24, 2001.
| REFERENCES |
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