Seeds

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Various seeds
Brazilian pine seeds ( Araucaria angustifolia )

As seeds (also seed grain or seed fruit ) one describes dry, dormant, generative reproductive organs such as seeds , fruits, false fruits, fruit stands or parts thereof. They contain the entire germination system of the plants that has arisen through fertilization. After the harvest, the seeds are in dormancy , some of which take several weeks to break down enzymatically - this is how nature ensures that they can germinate in accordance with the season . When stored in a dry and cool place, seeds retain their germination and growing power for many years.

On the other hand, vegetative reproductive organs such as rhizomes, tubers, onions and cuttings are referred to as plant material . These plant parts are capable of regeneration, but usually only last for a few vegetation periods.

properties

The size and weight of seeds from different plant species vary widely. For example, the thousand grain weight (TKG) of red clover is 1.75-2.25 grams, grain 28-55 grams, corn 200-450 grams and broad beans 300-700 grams.

When it comes to seeds, health, varietal purity, germinability and the vigor play a key role. The usual dressing of the agricultural seeds protects them and the young plants from fungi and pests during and after germination in the field.

By breeding seed is improved. Certified seeds are entered in the variety lists of the Federal Plant Variety Office . The sale of seeds that are “placed on the market” has been regulated in Germany by the Seed Traffic Act since the beginning of the 20th century .

use

When sowing of crops , a distinction is pure and mixed intercropping ( seed mixture ). The cultivation of arable crops such as grain, rice and maize is usually carried out as pure seeds - i.e. only seeds of the same type and variety are planted. Meadows and forage areas are usually mixed intercropping means ( Gemengesaat applied) - d. H. Seeds of various types of grass and clover are mixed in a ratio appropriate to the location.

After the seasonally appropriate sowing in the field, germination and field emergence usually occur . Some crops such as As winter crops need to bolting a vernalization - therefore appropriate to species sowing must be done before the winter frost.

As a rule of thumb for the soil cover in the seedbed , the sowing depth for dark germs should be three times the longest diameter of the seeds. However, there are also light germinators that have to be sown shallower in order to achieve optimal germination.

Companies

The 10 largest seed companies worldwide in 2014 were:

company Sales (million €) % of the global market
Monsanto 8420 23.7
DuPont / Pioneer Hi-Bred 5989 16.8
Syngenta 2474 7th
Groupe Limagrain / Vilmorin 1419 4th
Dow 1257 3.5
KWS Saat 1178 3.3
Land O'Lakes 1041 2.9
Bayer Crop Science 978 2.8
DLF 427 1.2
Sakata 301 0.8
total 23483 66

Genetically modified varieties from large producers are usually deliberately not designed for seed or variety stability and are protected by variety law, so that farmers cannot use the yields for reproduction , but have to buy more F1 hybrids every year .

International organizations

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is an intergovernmental organization for the protection of new varieties of plants . More than 70 states are members. The International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) develops seed test methods and issues certificates; it has members in 77 countries.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: seeds  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mean thousand grain weight of various seeds ( Memento from May 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Justus Wesseler, Alessandro Bonanno, Dušan Drabik, Valentina C. Materia, Luca Malaguti, Marcel Meyer, Thomas J. Venus: Overview of the agricultural inputs sector in the EU . Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, European Parliament, Brussels 2015, ISBN 978-92-823-7922-6 , p. 128 .
  3. ↑ Techniques of Plant Breeding / An Assessment for Organic Farming . FiBL . 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ Seeds: Whoever wants to harvest must sow . May 9, 2014.
  5. ↑ Automatic importer: who owns the seeds? . August 13, 2014 .: "Behind the apparent diversity of F1 hybrids there are actually only a few inbred lines that are crossed in different combinations."
  6. ↑ 39 addresses where you can get solid seeds . March 3, 2015.
  7. ↑ Seed privatization: Monsanto and Co. on the advance - nature + species . May 23, 2013.
  8. ↑ http://www.upov.int/index_de.html
  9. ↑ http://www.seedtest.org/en/home.html