EVALUATION OF THE CONDITIONS OF CONVENTIONAL AND BT CORN SEEDS AFTER TREATMENT WITH INSECTICIDES AND STORAGE

Abstract

Seed treatment with insecticide is a preventive form and one of the modern concepts for controlling soil pests in the initial phase of the crop. To use this technology, it is necessary to know the influence of these products in relation to the physiological and sanitary quality of the treated seeds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the main insecticides used in seed treatment, recommended for corn crops, or the combination of these for the treatment of conventional corn seeds and BT (Yieldgard), on germination, vigor and sanitary quality of seeds in different storage periods of treated seeds. Conventional and transgenic seeds were evaluated, which received 6 treatments with insecticides. These were evaluated by germination, chill, emency and health tests at 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after seed treatment. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks and the data were analyzed through deviance analysis, followed by a test to compare means. It was found that theseeds treated with the different insecticides showed adequate percentages of germination and emergence, that the conventional hybrid presented better performance than its genetically modified version in all the tests carried out and that the mixture of products such as Imidacloprid + thiodicarb + Fipronil reduced the incidence of the pathogens Fusarium moniliforme and Aspergillus spp.