HEINRICH MERCHANDISE PRODUCT
HORSHAM EVALUATION SITE 1999

Seed Treatment on Field Peas

There are many products available on the market for application to legume seed, all of which claim improved growth, yield etc.  Many of these products will work very well, as long as the nutrient applied is in demand by the plant, or is applied in a form that the plant can easily use.  This trial was developed to assess the performance of commercially available seed treatments, all applied at their recommended rates.

All the products used were liquid nutrients except for the SC27, which is a liquid microbial seed dressing.

Experimental Spraygro SG125 product contains both macro and micro-nutrients as well as additives to improve emergence and promote early vigour in the plants.  During the season the peas treated with this product as very bushy and showed a height and vigour advantage from a very early stage.

There was a zinc response at this site from the addition of Smartrace Zinc (a chelated product) but surprisingly, the Teprosyn Zinc did not achieve good results (there was some mice damage done to one of the Teprosyn trials, but it wasn’t really significant).  The level of Manganese in the soil was adequate, hence there was no significant response to the application of Zinc/Manganese.

There was a good response to the SC27 microbial dressing, which indicated the increased biological activity in the root zone assisted with the uptake of nutrients.