SUMMARY The emergence of pea seedlings is much, reduced under conditions of high soil moisture. Soil temperature is a factor of less importance. Under comparable conditions, the wrinkle‐seeded variety Gradus is more liable to fail in emergence than the round‐seeded variety Pilot. By dressing the dry seed with an organic mercurial compound, the stand of plants can be materially improved. The maximum load of fungicide which the dry seed is able to carry gives no visible check to the growth of the above‐ground part of the plant but an appreciable stunting of the tap root of the seedling has been demonstrated. Reduction in the stand of seedlings is chiefly due to the action of soil‐borne organisms. A species of Fusarium and a phycomycetous fungus, isolated from diseased seedlings, have been shown to be capable of causing a high mortality of pea seeds and seedlings under conditions of high soil humidity.
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Richard Hull (1937) studied this question.