Rangeland reseeding is a strategy often employed by land managers to improve rangelands after disturbance. Reseeding is carried out during the fall season in an effort to avoid unfavorable environmental conditions in the field (i.e. summer-drought/winter-freezing). Reseeding however, has high failure rates because of an increased mortality of seedlings during freezing events. Throughout a typical winter season, a seed must survive <60 freeze-thaw cycles. Various applications have been developed to aid in preventing high mortality rates of seedlings during such conditions. We�ve developed a new application with the intent to protect against freezing by preventing early imbibition and germination of seeds through the use of a hydrophobic seed coating. Preliminary, research appeared to show that in some instances the hydrophobic coatings would prematurely breakdown due to freeze cycles and allow germination to occur during the winter. Our research explored options to enhance the integrity of a hydrophobic coating under repeated freeze-thaw events to allow for breakdown in late winter/early spring so that germination occurs when soil temperatures are more conducive for seedling survival. Research was divided into three main studies: 1) evaluation of ethylcellulose products for use as a seed coating and chemical plasticizers that could be applied with the hydrophobic coating material, 2) we explored how application rates of these products influenced resistance to freeze-thaw events, 3) we will use two models to predict seed germination: the time to hydrophobic coating failure model and the hydro-thermal accumulation model. The coating-failure model will illustrate when temperature and moisture begin affecting germination and the hydro-thermal model will give an actual date of germination after coating failure. Together, these two models are applied to historical temperature and moisture data to predict seed germination for various sites. This technology will enable land managers to continue reseeding efforts and increase rangeland reseeding success.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.