Some considerations about seeds

Dear readers, agriculture is based on the propagation of crops for the food of the family or commercialization of the same, but to achieve the establishment of crops in the production units, a propagation material from the same plants known as seeds must be used. The seeds come from the reproductive organ of the plants, which ensures the propagation of the plants in different ecosystems depending on the soil conditions and climate, Knowing the type of seed to be used, which we will talk about later can facilitate the sowing work and in this way ensure that they germinate and a new seedling sprouts.

In this same order of ideas, some researchers such as Pino and Díaz (2005), pointed out that seeds from the ecological point of view become an element to maintain the offspring of plants and in natural ecosystems they can be disseminated through biotic and abiotic factors such as wind, birds and insects. In the same way as we mentioned above they represent a means of propagation of crops destined for commercialization, generally for the propagation of crops seeds are used that go through some industrial processes to ensure their germination and protection.

The types of seeds that are used in agriculture are sexual seeds and vegetative seeds, sexual seeds are those that are obtained when the formation of the fruit begins, these can be handled in an artisanal way, which we will talk about in the next sections and in an industrial way known as certified seeds that are subjected to certain processes such as scarification that seeks to wear down the seed wall to make it thinner and in this way shorten the germination time because the seed can be hydrated in an easier way, they also apply pesticides to protect them from insects and other pathogens that can cause damage to them, this process is known as pelletizing.

On the other hand, an artisanal handling can also be applied to the sexual seeds, one of the handling consists of immersing the seeds in water, after a few minutes the container where they were placed is verified and those seeds that are floating are discarded, because possibly it is a seed that does not have an embryo or presents a dysfunctional embryo, then for those who wish to perform the germination test of these seeds, after moisturizing them as mentioned above, a toilet paper or absorbent paper is placed, the paper is moistened and the seeds are placed on the paper, then covered with another moistened paper, this is done with the intention of stimulating the germination of the seeds maintaining moisture, then it is periodically reviewed to determine according to the amount of germinated seeds if these are viable for sowing.

There are also vegetative seeds, which are the ones that come from the plant usually rhizome stem fractions and stolons are used in grassland crops, to select this type of seeds in case of being a stem, parts of the stem where there are the largest number of knots should be considered, which is where the regrowth of a new seedling will be carried out, like the sexual seeds it should be ensured that the seeds are hydrated and in the case of sowing grasses with stolons to do it in the morning to avoid dehydration.

Dear readers, knowing the type of seed that will be used for sowing is important, to determine how the seed will be handled in the field, when sowing crops such as pastures with sexual seeds it is recommended not to leave the seeds at a depth greater than 3 cm with the intention that it can germinate and emerge easily, in the case of vegetative seeds such as stems, these are scattered on the ground and then an agricultural implement known as a harrow is passed to incorporate the vegetative material into the soil, on the other hand, it is important to carry out the sowing when the rainy season is expected to begin in order to have sufficient moisture in the early stages of the seedling.