Seed Handling, Treatment And Method of Sowing

    Hi, welcome back. For this entry, I want to share with you about week 4. As usual, I woke up in the early morning and gathered at the assembly site. In this week,I  learned about seed handling, treatment and method of sowing. Madam Wajihah (lecturer) was briefed to us about seed handling and treatment.

4.1 Madam Wajihah gave some i nformation about seed handling and treatment

  For your information, Seed is defined as (a dormant plant which develops into a complete plant when subjected to environmental conditions). Seed germination is the process where embryonic plant is contained in the seed leads to emergence of new plant. The embryo formed is wrapped in a seed coat. When the seeds are not subjected to environment, they remain dormant. Factors that affecting germination are water, oxygen, temperature and light.

   Before we plant the seed,we must do seed treatment . The function of seed treatment is to protect seed from the fungi, pest and disease. It is important because it will increase to germination percentage and reduce the disease incident from repeat again. There are several type of seed treatment that we have learned. Firstly, seedcoating by using chemical protectant that content with nutrient, fungicide or pesticide whether by apply  direct coating or film coating of the seed. Secondly, pelleting by rolling seed with chemical solution or granular form but we need to be careful because it tend to be more easily damage the seed. Thirdly, seed priming which is the most efficient ways. It is a pre-sowing treatment . We need to soak the seed into the osmotic solution whether fungicide or pesticide for at least 5 hours. Then, we also learned about physical seed treatment.  There are 4 type which is solar heat treatment (dry and expose seed to sunlight), hot water treatment (soak seed into hot water for overnight), dry heat treatment (by using machine that produce heat to the seed) and arrested stim treatment (heat traps to soften the seed). This physical treatment help seed to germinate well.

4.2 Planter executive explained to students about the uses and function of Thiram 80

     Before that, we was prepared 10 L of thiram solution from 20 g of thiram.  Thiram is a synthetic sulphur that containing compound used as fungicide and seed protectant. We were given a few oil palm seeds. In this opportunity, we gained new knowledge about the structure of oil pam seed. We have searched some information about the morphology of oil palm. The scientific name of oil palm is Elaeis guineensis.

4.3 Elaeis guineensis (oil palm)

4.4 Structure of oil palm seed

    For additional information, crude palm oil (CPO) is extracted from mesocarp while palm kernel oil (PKO) is extracted from kernel. Depending on the varities, generally the ration of CPO to PKO is about 10:1. 90% of all palm oil is used for food. Other use in biodiesel, sanitary products etc.

Seed preparation and treatment:

First step, we peel off the outer layer of the oil palm seeds. Then, we soaked all that seed into thiram solution in the plastic container about 5 hours. After 5 hours, the seeds were transferred and plant into the black tray that consist with compost and soil. We let them in the greenhouse to get the perfect climatic condition for the plant growth.

For better understanding, let's take a look at this video:

4.5 Steps of Seed treatment 

That's all from me for this week. Thank You to lend me your eyes. See again at next entry.