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Abstract
‘Miragreen’ garden pea seeds from individual seed lots were sorted into bleached, partially-bleached, and non-bleached categories. Seeds were either soaked for 48 hours in aerated water at 22°C, coated with thiram fungicide, or received no treatment. Seeds were planted in Conover loam soil where damping-off and seedling rot were primarily caused by Pythium ultimum Trow and Fusarium solani (Mort.) Sacc f. sp. pisi (Jones) Snyd. & Hans. No differences in germination in vitro were found among bleached, partially bleached, and non-bleached seeds. However, seedling emergence in the field was greater from untreated non-bleached seeds (69%) than from untreated bleached seeds (30%); emergence from partially bleached seeds (58%) was intermediate. Regardless of degree of bleaching, all seedlings were a normal green color after emergence, and appeared equal in vigor. Pea yields from untreated bleached seeds were less than from untreated non-bleached seeds, apparently because pea-emergence damping off was so much greater with bleached than with non-bleached seeds. No yield differences occurred with fungicide-treated seeds. Soaking partially bleached seeds for 48 hours in aerated water at 22°C prior to planting in April was as effective in improving emergence in artificially infested soil as coating seeds with thiram. However, when seeds were planted in mid-June, the thiram treatment gave higher seedling emergence than the soaking treatment. In general, high yields were achieved by early planting of seeds and minimum root rot.