Evaluation of Germination, Seedling Emergence, and Management of Pest and Diseases in Nicotiana tabacum cv. K326 in Response to Seed Disinfection

Introduction: Seed is the fundamental input of crop production and tobacco is cultivated as transplanting and its transplant produced as float system. Therefore, seed germination and produced seedling health and diseases and pests management have high importance. So, evaluation of seeds dressing effect on germination and important pests and diseases management in the nursery for healthy transplantable seedling production is important. The study aims to investigate the effect of disinfectant of K326 tobacco seed on germination and percentage of transmissible transplants and management of contamination of sciaridae fly, aphid, and collar rot in a float system tray. Material and method: This study was conducted as a completely randomized design in 3 replications at Tirtash Research and Education Center in 2014. seeds dressed by pelleting apparatus disinfected with Metalaxyl (Ridomil) and Thiophanate–methyl (TopsinM) fungicides and Imidacloprid (Gaucho), Thiamethoxam (Confidor) and Thiodicarb (Larvin) insecticide and seeds heating by 60ºC temperature warm air during 1 hour, seeds treatment by 50ºC heat water for 10 minutes and treatment by 0.5 percent concentration sodium hypochlorite for 4 minutes. Then normal seedlings percent by standard germination test, seedling emergence percent in float system, transplantable seedling of float system and infected to Sciarid fly, aphid and stem rot seedlings determined. Results: Results showed that K326 Tobacco Seeds Disinfected by 2.5 g/kg metallaxyl + 2.5 g/kg thiophane-methyl (70% wettable powder) + 10 g/kg imidacloprid + 6 cm3/kg Thiodicarb had the highest percentage of normal seedlings, percentage of seedling emergence in the float system tray and percentage of removable transplants and the least seedling contaminated with sciaridae, aphid and collar rot. Conclusion: Results of this study showed that all seed disinfection treatments improved seed germination, seedling emergence percentage, and removable seedlings in the float system tray as well as infected seedlings compared to control decreased collar rot, sciaridae fly, and aphids. Also, the mentioned traits were superior to the non-chemical disinfectant treatments in seed disinfection treatments with the studied fungicides and insecticides.