7.1 – Overview and Learning Objectives
Overview
Seed can serve as a pathway for introducing plant diseases and other pests to new environments and new countries. The risk to agriculture is very high should a new pathogen become introduced and established in an important crop. Seed of over 300 species of plants are moved globally, often several times before being sold commercially. Therefore, the removal or management of seed borne disease is imperative to protect global agriculture and trade.
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe:
- What a seedborne pathogen is and how it infects seed.
- The risks of moving seedborne diseases in seed in trade.
- The basics of optimal seed storage methods and conditions
- How seed conditioning can help manage and prevent the movement of seedborne disease.
- Proper pre and post-harvest treatment of seed to prevent seedborne disease and insect attack.
Great definition of a seed....
Any organism capable of causing a disease by obtaining nutrients either partially or wholly from its diseased host; a bacterium, virus, fungus, or other microorganism that can cause disease.
amazing definition of conditioning