TY - JOUR AU - Dube, Ernest AU - Sibiya, Julia AU - Fanadzo, Morris PY - 2014/11/26 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Early planting and hand sorting effectively controls seed-borne fungi in farm-retained bean seed JF - South African Journal of Science JA - S. Afr. J. Sci. VL - 110 IS - 11/12 SE - Research Article DO - 10.1590/sajs.2014/20130342 UR - https://sajs.co.za/article/view/4038 SP - 6 AB - <p>Home-saved bean (<em>Phaseolus vulgaris&nbsp;</em>L.) seed can be hand-sorted to remove discoloured seed, thereby reducing the level of contamination by certain seed-borne fungi and improving seed germination. In this study, the effect of planting date on the infection and discolouration of bean seed by seed-borne fungi was investigated in order to improve the quality of hand-sorted, farm-retained bean seeds used by resource poor smallholder farmers. The germination quality and level of seed-borne fungi in hand-sorted first-generation bean seed harvested from an early-, mid- and late-summer season planted crop was therefore assessed. The highest percentage of discoloured seed (68%) was obtained from the mid-summer season planting. Non-discoloured seed from early- and late-season plantings had significantly (<em>p</em>&lt;0.001) higher normal germination (82% and 77%, respectively) than that from the mid-season planting date (58%). Irrespective of planting date, unsorted seed and discoloured seed had higher levels of infection by&nbsp;<em>Fusarium&nbsp;</em>spp. and&nbsp;<em>Phaeoisariopsis&nbsp;</em>spp. than the non-discoloured seed. Removal of discoloured seed by hand sorting eliminated&nbsp;<em>Rhizoctonia&nbsp;</em>spp. from all seed lots. Farmers can eliminate this pathogen by simply removing discoloured seed. Non-discoloured seed from the early-planted crop had the lowest level of infection by&nbsp;<em>Fusarium&nbsp;</em>spp. and&nbsp;<em>Phaeoisariopsis&nbsp;</em>spp. The results indicate that planting date is an important consideration in improving the quality of hand-sorted farm-retained bean seed.</p> ER -