40 CONTROL SERIES NO. 179 



STUDIES OF FLOWER SEEDS 



Section 261 H 



Conducted by the Seed Laboratory* 



111 1958, the twenty-third year of field-testing by the Seed Laboratory, studies were ' 

 made to determine the quality of flower seeds offered for sale to residents of Massa- 

 chusetts through various local and mail o'der outlets. A total of 387 seed lots, 

 representing 9 genera and various mixtures of annuals packeted by 28 wholesalers 

 or distributors, were obtained from 97 retailers or grower sources by the State Seed 

 Inspectors. All except the mixtures were subjected to germination tests in the 

 Laborjtory before field-testing. 



Since only nine genera were included in the 1958 tests it was a relatively com- 

 plete and thorough pielure of the quality of seed in these genera. The genera selected 

 for field study were Ageratum, Calendula, Celosia, Centaurea cyanus, Iberis, Phlox, 

 Poilulaca. Tagetcs and Zinnia. In addition to these nine genera which were field 

 tested, similar field plantings were made of the annual flower seed mixtures off"ered 

 by most of our wholesale seedsmen. 



All the flower seeds were planted on June 4th and 5th. Seeds were sown in lU-foot 

 rows and the rows were spaced three feet apart. In all cases one packet of seed was 

 planted per row. The results listed in Table 5 are lor only those samples considered 

 worthless for sale, or those with satisfactory germination tests but found unsatis- 

 factory in the field for other reasons. A sample was considered worthless for sale 

 if it germinated 50 percent or less of the tentative "standard" for flower seed. The 

 tentative "standards" for the respective genera included in the field trials are as 

 foUow.s: Ageratum, 70%; Calendula, 70%; Celosia, 70%; Centaurea cyanus, 70%; 

 Iberis, 70%; Phlox, 70%; Portulaca, 70%; Tagete:,, 70%; and Zinnia. 70%. On 

 the basis of the laboratory tests, 4 percent of the total of 37.3 lots were "worthless" 

 and 28.9 peixent were below the tentative "standards." 



Table 5 lists those samples that were found in the field test to diff"er iu performance 

 from that stated on the seed packet plus those samples that germinated 50% or less 

 than the tentative "standards" in the laboratory tests. Also included are observa- 

 tions made on the annual flower mixture packets. 



*Waldo C. Lincoln, Jr., Research Instructor. 

 Kenneth Pelton, Laboratory Assistant. 



