Many farmers in Kazakhstan were unable to procure grain seeds in 2023 due to rains during the harvesting period. They see a solution in using high-quality commercial grain from previous years for sowing in the spring of 2024.
Specialists of the Research and Production Center for Grain Farming named after. Barayev prepared recommendations on how to properly prepare commercial grain for sowing. According to experts, the germination and germination energy of commercial grain can be quite high, which makes it suitable for sowing. However, there is a serious drawback - low varietal purity. Indeed, in commodity lots, the varietal identity of the seeds is not taken into account, and most often it is a mixture of varieties of different types in terms of the duration of the growing season, economic and biological characteristics. Therefore, crops made with commercial grain may be variegated in growth and development during the growing season, with prolonged and uneven ripening.
“To use commercial grain for sowing, it is necessary to select batches that are more homogeneous in varietal composition. Or there must be seeds of varieties similar in early ripening groups and other economic characteristics. To determine the varietal identity of seeds, methods of analyzing seeds using molecular markers are used (electrophoresis of seed storage proteins in PAAG, PCR tests, etc.). This will make it possible to select seeds from the commercial lots that are more similar in their biology,” recommended the specialists of the Research and Production Center for Agriculture named after. Baraeva.
There are also methods for preparing seeds that make it possible to achieve more uniform germination even from a varietal mixture. One of these methods is air-thermal heating of seeds. It involves exposing the seeds to warm atmospheric air or artificially heated air with active ventilation.
“Air-thermal heating increases the porosity and air permeability of seed coats, enhances enzymatic processes and thereby increases the energy of germination and germination of seeds. On warm and dry spring days, windows and doors are opened in granaries, and the seeds are periodically transferred and passed through grain cleaning machines or taken to open areas,” recommended specialists from the Research and Production Center for Agriculture named after. Baraeva.
It is possible to carry out active heating of seeds in dryers for one to two hours at a coolant temperature of 50–60°C, a heap temperature of 25–30°C with a resting time of 15–20 hours.
It is also possible to heat seeds with heated or simple atmospheric air in active ventilation installations of various designs.