Wheat Emergence and Yield as Related to Cultivar and Seed Treatment

Fungicide seed treatments may be recommended for protecting winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings from seedborne pathogens. However, effects of these seed treatments on stand establishment (emergence) and grain yield under field conditions are not clear. A 3-year field study was conducted to determine the effects of various fungicide seed treatments on emergence and grain yield of several commercial winter wheat cultivars in the south-central Great Plains. The research was conducted at Hutchinson and Caldwell, Kansas. Treatments consisted of six cultivars (main plot) and six seed fungicide treatments (subplot). The split-plot analysis of variance revealed no interaction between seed treatment and cultivar. A nonsignificant trend toward reduced emergence of seedlings from treated seeds was evident across all cultivars. This trend, however, had no consistent effect on grain yield at either location. In areas of limited postemergence disease pressure, plants in plots where the seed is treated may compensate for reductions in stand (reduced emergence), such that grain yields will be similar to those from untreated seed. Thus, seed treatments should be considered when seed/soilborne pathogens are suspected or seed with poor or low germination or a reduced seeding rate is used.