Warm water seed-treatment realised in the practice for the control of the seed-borne snow mould in summer-wheat

In Switzerland, one of the most important seed-borne fungal pathogens of wheat is Gerlachia nivalis (=Fusarium nivale, snow mould). A warm water seed treatment under practical conditions against G. nivalis-naturally infected summer-wheat seed, was compared with a laboratory warm water treatment and a chemical dressing in field and laboratory experiments. For the warm water treatment under practical conditions seed lots of 350 kg were dipped into water at 45 °C in a bin for cheese production during two hours, then air-dried (35 °C) during four hours. For the laboratory warm water treatment a waterbath was used and the seed was dried back at 40 °C during five hours. For chamical dressing Beret 050 FS (4,8 % fenpiclonil) was applied with a Hege-spraying seed-treatment machine. Warm water treatment under practical conditions was as efficacious against G. nivalis as the laboratory warm water treatment and the chemical one. All seed treatments had no damaging effect on the germination of seeds. It was concludet that for organic farming, warm water treatment of wheat seeds is an alternative to the chemical seed dressing against G nivalis.