Abstract:

To reduce the occurrence of maize seed-borne fungi disease, reasonable seed treatment methods should be explored to reduce the rate of fungi. ‘Zheng 58’ was used as material, and the fungal rate of seed-borne fungi and the seed germination were detected by the methods of PDA plate culture and germination test of filter paper with different temperature treatments. The results showed that seeds could carry fungi at the temperature of 30℃ to 50℃, the fungal rates changed from 3.3% to 23.3%, which decreased significantly with the increase of temperature and extension of treatment time, and fungal species also reduced. In the treatments at 40℃ and 45℃ (10-20 min), the fungal rates of seeds ranged from 10% to 13.5%, significantly lower than that of the control (P <0.05). The internal fungal rates of 3.3%-6.7% at 45℃ (30 min) and 50℃ were the lowest. Effects of different temperature on the germination rate, germination potential and germination index of seeds were significantly different. 30℃ treatment had no effect on seed germination. The germination potential and germination index of seeds treated at 35℃ and 40℃ (10-20 min) increased significantly, but the germination rate of seeds at 40℃(30 min) reduced significantly (P<0.05). At the temperature from 45℃ to 50℃, the germination potential, germination rate and germination index decreased significantly. The rates of fungi inside seeds treated at 40℃ for 10-20 min were reduced effectively by 33.5%-50.0%, and seed germination was promoted, which could be used as reasonable temperature and time of maize seed treatment before sowing.

Key words: temperature, maize seed, seed-borne fungi, seed germination