Abstract
Microbial inoculants are becoming more available as sustainable alternatives to fertilizers and other agrichemicals in broad-acre cropping. However, with the exception of legume inoculants little is understood about effective delivery and survival of the inoculum. Legume inoculants are applied to both seed and soil but seed inoculation is the most economical technique. Large quantities of pasture seed in Australia are inoculated by commercial seed coating companies, but the long-term survival of seed-applied inoculum is variable and monitoring of viability requires specialist microbiology skills and facilities. The aim of our research was to define optimum storage conditions for survival of rhizobia on legume seed and evaluate water activity as a means of monitoring shelf-life. The relationship between survival and water activity varied according to seed species, inoculum preparation, coating ingredients, initial water activity and time suggesting that storage conditions would need to be defined for each different combination. Although drying seeds after coating significantly reduced viable numbers of rhizobia, survival of rhizobia on dried commercially coated lucerne seed after 11 weeks was less variable than seeds that had not been dried. The highest numbers were maintained when seeds remained dry with water activities of between 0.47 and 0.38. The quality of inoculated seed could be improved by reducing the death rate of inoculum during preparation and providing optimum storage conditions for long-term survival.
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The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
The relation between rhizobial survival and water activity varied by seed species, inoculum preparation, coating ingredients, initial water activity and time.
- Taxon
- Legume Seedt0
- Treatment
- inoculum preparation, coating ingredients, initial water activity and timee0
- Interactor
- rhizobiae1symbiont
- Outcome
- survivale0
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e0“The relationship between survival and water activity varied according to seed species, inoculum preparation, coating ingredients, initial water activity and time”
e1“survival of rhizobia on dried commercially coated lucerne seed”
t0“Legume Seed”
Claim · model-written summary
Drying coated seeds significantly reduced viable rhizobial numbers.
- Taxon
- Legume Seedt0
- Treatment
- drying seeds after coatinge0
- Interactor
- rhizobiae0symbiont
- Outcome
- viable numbers of rhizobiae0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“drying seeds after coating significantly reduced viable numbers of rhizobia”
t0“Legume Seed”
Claim · model-written summary
After 11 weeks, rhizobial survival on dried commercially coated lucerne seed was less variable than on seeds not dried.
- Taxon
- lucerne seed
Medicago sativae0 - Treatment
- dried commercially coated lucerne seede0
- Interactor
- rhizobiae0symbiont
- Outcome
- survival of rhizobiae0
- Direction
- less variablee0
- Qualifier
- after 11 weekse0
- Comparator
- seeds that had not been driede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“survival of rhizobia on dried commercially coated lucerne seed after 11 weeks was less variable than seeds that had not been dried”
Claim · model-written summary
Dry seed at water activities between 0.47 and 0.38 maintained the highest rhizobial numbers.
- Taxon
- lucerne seedMedicago sativae1
- Treatment
- seeds remained drye0
- Interactor
- rhizobiae1symbiont
- Outcome
- highest numberse0
- Direction
- higheste0
- Value
- between 0.47 and 0.38e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The highest numbers were maintained when seeds remained dry with water activities of between 0.47 and 0.38”
e1“survival of rhizobia on dried commercially coated lucerne seed”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors propose reducing inoculum death during preparation and optimizing storage to improve inoculated seed quality.
Verbatim
e0“The quality of inoculated seed could be improved by reducing the death rate of inoculum during preparation and providing optimum storage conditions for long-term survival”
t0“Legume Seed”