Preparation and study of an environmentally friendly seed- coating agent for cucumber

Abstract

Traditional seed-coating agents are widely used, and their accumulative toxicity in soil brings a great hazard to natural environment and human health. In this study, a novel cucumber seed-coating agent was prepared from natural polysaccharide, fertilizer and microelement, etc. Results indicated that the agent had an excellent control effect on pests and increased yield by 8.5% to 9.3%, while the material cost was decreased by 16.7% compared with the traditional toxic seed-coating agent. In addition, the toxicity of the novel agent was also lower than that of traditional ones. Therefore, the application of the novel agent for cucumber is an appropriate option for controlling pests and replacing high toxicity ones.

Keywords

seed-coating agent / natural polysaccharide / germination percentage / cucumber yield

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Acknowledgements

We express the appreciation to Zhejiang Science and Technology Agency of China for financial support (No. ZK20061103). We also thank the State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology of Shandong Agricultural University. A special acknowledgment is given to Wuhan University of Technology for experimental conditions and technical support.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg