I will cover six topics in this Manager’s Corner: Update on testing during the pandemic, expectations for quality of incoming seed from agronomic species, testing industrial hemp & cover crop seed, Seed Science’s new growth room addition, virtual seed conferences and the FREE STB virtual fall short course.
Testing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Our dedicated staff, temps and students have continued testing seeds and reporting results right through this terrible pandemic. We’ve taken the precautions of requiring face masks, social distancing, wiping down surfaces and restricting entry to the building. Those at Iowa State University as a whole have done a good job continuing to attend classes, work and even play football and do so as safely as is possible.
Early Report on Seed Quality: Quality of cereal seed samples has been good with many samples not having an issue with Fusarium (Wheat Scab). However, for the ones that do we’ve added counts to our evaluations and spaced seeds further apart when retesting problem samples. Corn and soybean germs have looked good so far. It does appear that a significant number of soybean samples will have an issue with swollen and hard seeds. Swollen seeds slow down testing a bit as swollen seeds must be moved to fresh planting media and extended up to five days. With much of Iowa dealing with a drought there has been a surprising number of soybean samples with Fusarium and/or Phompsis present. The ISU Seed Lab tests many more species than these, over 300!
Industrial Hemp and Cover Crop Seed: Unlike what I’ve heard from other state seed labs, the ISU Seed Lab hasn’t been overwhelmed with samples of industrial hemp seed. This isn’t a bad thing as AOSA and SCST (seed testing organizations) are working to update testing requirements for hemp. Hemp has been in the AOSA Rules for Testing Seeds since the early 1900’s, but lack in some ways, such as ways to break dormancy. Testing of cover crop seed went smoother this year as our Purity and Germination labs efficiently moved samples along. Our newly purchased microscopes that utilize images appearing on a computer monitor aided in ergonomics and ease of identifying seeds. We also introduced sample bags specifically for cover crop seed.
Growth Room Addition: Thanks to a generous donor and the work of Seed Science Center Director Dr. Manjit Misra, ISU Seed Science has four new growth rooms to work in. Seed Science has utilized space in several greenhouses over the years, but they aren’t next to the building and there hasn’t always been enough space available for health testing and testing for biotech traits. Instead of adding greenhouse space to Seed Science, the four growth rooms utilize modern lighting so as to be energy efficient (and safe from hail storms!).
Finally, please visit our booth at ASTA’s virtual seed conferences (CSS and the Vegetable & Flower conference). Also virtual this early November will be the STB Fall short course. For more information on the FREE short course visit https://www.seedgrad.iastate.edu/virtual-webinar-series/.
Best wishes for a safe and healthy winter!
