Plant husbandry – Electroculture – magnetoculture or electrocuting
Reexamination Certificate
1992-07-31
2004-06-08
McElwain, Elizabeth F. (Department: 1638)
Plant husbandry
Electroculture, magnetoculture or electrocuting
C047S057600, C047S057700
Reexamination Certificate
active
06745512
ABSTRACT:
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to a process and a device for treating seeds to combat seed- and/or soil-borne harmful organisms. The process and the device according to the present invention are intended for the treatment of agricultural, horticultural or forestry seeds, in particular, for the treatment of grain. The present invention is especially suited for combating smut in wheat or barley in agricultural production.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
With specific cultivated varieties of grain, it is known that the seeds are dressed against seed-borne fungal pathogens. A plurality of chemical and physical treatment methods are known for this purpose. As a rule, the chemical treatment is carried out with dressing agents that contain one or several active substances. However, the specific pathogens of wheat smut (Ustilago tritici) and barley smut (Ustilago nuda) as well as other seed-borne harmful organisms can only be combated effectively by means of combined preparations which normally consist of a mercury compound and, a systemically attacking agent or of mercury-free combined preparations and at least one systemically attacking agent.
It is known in this connection that highly toxic chemicals are used. These have a wide range of action and are based on mercury compounds and their area of attack is the surface and seed shell of the seed corn. The mercury-free dressing agents which have either a small or a wide range of action make it possible to combat harmful organisms colonizing the deep regions of the seed corn. Furthermore, one expects of the above-described dressing operation with chemicals that these also protect the seed corn against soil-borne harmful organisms by adhering to the seed corn. Apart from a high deposition rate, the application of these agents requires specific devices which satisfy the conditions of application.
The disadvantages inherent to chemical dressing reside in the toxicity of the employed agents for warm-blooded animals and man and in developing resistance phenomena that can be observed during prolonged use with respect to specific harmful organisms. on the other hand, mercury-free dressing agents are much more expensive. Resistance also increases due to the fact that the standard treating agents (pesticides) contain the same active substances or active substances of the same groups as the dressing agents. Another aspect of the chemical dressing agents regards the residues thereof in cultivated plants and the associated negative effects on human and animal organisms. The amounts needed as well as metabolic phenomena are here of great importance. Finally, the known methods and devices for the chemical dressing of seeds have often the disadvantage that the fungicidal potency of the dressing agents is not fully exploited and that there is a potential risk of phytotoxic damage to the seeds caused by overdosage. The latter is often due to the uneven deposition of the dressing agent on the seed corns.
It is also known that the dressing agent is applied to the seeds in vacuum (DD-PS 18 675, DD-PS 23 421). The vacuum simultaneously serves to combat grain smut in an improved way through the additional action of moist heat. Devices of this type have however not gained any great importance because the procedure is very time-consuming and only a relatively small throughput can be achieved. Such a throughput does not meet the requirements of an efficient technological procedure, in particular in central seed processing installations.
Hot-water dressing has become known as a physical dressing method for combating barley smut. Although this method is very acceptable from an ecological point of view, as it is non-toxic and no harmful residues are left, it is not very successful and has thus not proved to be very efficient in practice.
The use of ionized high-energy rays, such as gamma or X-rays, to combat microbial harmful organisms on seeds is not possible because the necessary radiation dose would have mutagenic or phytotoxic effects on the seeds.
Furthermore, it is known that low energy electron beams are used in vacuum or in a free atmosphere to combat seed-borne harmful organisms (DD-PS 242 337, DD-PS 238 715, U.S. Pat. No. 4,633, 611). The electron energy and the radiation dose are chosen such that microbial harmful organisms are killed on the surface or in the near surface layers of the seed corn (caryopsis) without any produce affecting action or phytotoxic effects on the germ.
Although such a method has the advantage that it does not create any toxic effects and does thus not present any danger to man or his environment, seed-transferrable harmful organisms are not or only partly combated in the deep layers of the corn and in the germ, respectively, and the seeds are exposed to the attack of soil-borne harmful organisms in an unchecked way. Therefore, when barley or wheat smut causing agents are combated, electron dressing is not efficient enough because these agents colonize the deep layers of the caryopsis.
Biological combating methods which employ microbial antagonists that are used against seed-borne harmful organisms are now described more and more often (AT-PS 360 274, DE-OS 33 11 071, EP-PS 255 774, U.S. Pat. No. 4 798 723, etc.).
Bacterial antagonists, such as Bacillus spp., Streptomyces spp., Pseudomonas spp. and fungal antagonists, such as Chaetomium spp., Gliocladium spp., Penecillium spp., Trichoderma spp. and others are used. However, the good fungicidal effects found under laboratory conditions at optimum temperatures of more than 20° C. are often not confirmed by outdoor tests, and there is considerable uncertainty about the effects thereof. To improve their efficiency, mixtures of microbial antagonists and fungicides were therefore used (see DE-OS 23 52 403, DE-OS 27 40 052, DD-PS 267 420).
At the present stage of the fight against harmful organisms by means of antagonists, it is regarded as a deficiency that the vitality and thus efficiency of these antagonists are limited by existing seed-borne harmful organisms, added fungicides with a wide range of action or unfavorable colonization conditions for the antagonists on the seed corn.
Finally, methods for the seed treatment with symbiotic microorganisms or mycorrhiza fungi have been suggested. It is the target of these measures to transfer microorganisms into the soil together with the seed corn. These microorganisms live in symbiosis with the useful plant or in the immediate vicinity thereof in the soil and provide important macronutrients for the useful plant through their metabolic products.
In this case, too, it might happen that above all seed-borne harmful organisms or fungicides with a wide range of action affect the development and thus efficiency of these microorganisms.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a process of the above-mentioned type which is more effective in combating seed- and/or soil-borne harmful organisms and less harmful to the environment and permits a high throughput. Moreover, the process is meant to combat the harmful organisms on the seeds more efficiently, i.e. independently of the localization of the population of harmful organisms on the seed corn.
Furthermore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a device for treating seeds to combat seed-borne and/or soil-borne harmful organisms, with the device permitting a high throughput during the treatment of the seeds as well as a highly efficient treatment on all sides thereof in the combat against harmful organisms, i.e. independently of the localization of said organisms on or in the seeds.
As for the seed treating process, this object is attained according to the invention in that the seeds are subjected in immediate sequential order to a combined treatment with low energy electron beams and, thereafter, with active chemical substances and/or biological material.
Surprisingly enough it has been found that when the seed treatment to combat harmful organisms is carried out in two steps immediately following each other, namely the irradiation of the seeds with low
Fischer Reiner
Gaber Klaus
Jahn Marga
Lange Manfred
Leja Michael
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
McElwain Elizabeth F.
UBT Ingenieurbüro GmbH Quedlinburg
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