How to Choose Corn Seeds for the Planting Season? Quality Standards, Precautions, and How to Tell New Seeds from Old

Corn, also known as baogu, baolu, yujiao, baomi, bangzi, sumi, yushushu, yujiao, yumai, and lushu, is an important grain crop and feed crop.So how do you choose corn seeds? What are the quality standards? What should you pay attention to? How do you tell new seeds from old ones?Let's take a look together below.

How do you choose corn seeds? What should you pay attention to?

1. Do not buy varieties that have not been approved (the key point being that they are not indicated as suitable for local planting). Although some may produce a decent yield in the year they are planted, once the climate is unfavorable, they may suffer major losses; when buying seeds, be sure to choose several varieties to guard against unpredictable weather and prevent large-scale yield reductions; beware of buying varieties that have already been phased out. Because such varieties are lower in price, some unscrupulous dealers specifically do this kind of business to cheat customers.

2. When selecting seeds, pay attention to the variety's stress resistance. Stress resistance mainly refers to the variety's disease resistance, lodging resistance, drought resistance, insect resistance, cold tolerance, and so on. Simply put, under the same conditions, a variety that suffers little or no damage when other varieties are damaged generally has good yield stability.

3. The outer packaging bag of legitimate corn seeds must be marked with an approval number, and each variety's packaging bag has a corresponding approval number. For example, if the approval number is Guoshenyu 2011007, it means that the variety was approved by the National Crop Variety Approval Committee in 2011, and the number at the time of approval was No. 007. Whether the corn seeds are nationally approved or locally approved, you must check whether the suitable planting area includes your region. At the same time, farmers are reminded that they may refuse to buy seeds without an approval number.

4. There are indeed some seed producers on the market who sell old seeds after coating them. Once old seeds are coated, it is very difficult to identify whether they are old seeds. It is recommended that after buying coated seeds, you conduct a germination test within 15 days (when doing the germination test, be careful to wash off the coating first). If the sprouting vigor is weak (long germination time) and the germination rate is low, the probability that they are old seeds is high, and it is recommended to return or exchange them.

5. After a crop variety's approval is revoked in the year it is announced, promotion stops after one production cycle is announced, and after the announcement it may be sold at most until the end of that production cycle. Users can go to the local planting enforcement brigade or seed management station to learn the list of varieties whose approval has been revoked.

6. Corn yield is composed of the number of ears per unit area, the number of grains per ear, and grain weight. It is not that the heavier the 100-grain weight, the higher the yield; 100-grain weight is an indicator reflecting seed size and plumpness.

What are the standards for qualified corn seeds?

The indicators used in China to measure seed quality mainly include four items: variety purity, seed cleanliness, germination rate, and moisture. The state has also made clear provisions:

Grade 1 seeds: purity not less than 98%, cleanliness not less than 98%, germination rate not less than 85%, and moisture content not higher than 13%;

Grade 2 seeds: purity not less than 96%, cleanliness not less than 98%, germination rate not less than 85%, and moisture content not higher than 13%.

How do you tell new corn seeds from old corn seeds?

Generally, after long storage, old seeds become dull in color, and the embryo is relatively hard. If you pinch the embryo with your hand, there is less horny endosperm and more floury endosperm. They are easily bored by rice weevils, and the embryo often has small round holes; when you put your hand into the seed bag and pull it out, there is powder on your hand; in addition, sprouting vigor and germination rate are low, and after sowing, in the field they mostly appear to have germinated in the soil but become twisted and unable to emerge above the ground to form seedlings. New seeds are bright in color, have no insect holes, and have relatively high germination rate and germination vigor.

Why can high yield and high efficiency be achieved only when good corn varieties are matched with good methods?

So-called matching good corn varieties with good methods means adopting corresponding planting methods according to the growth and development characteristics of the variety, so as to give play to the variety's strengths, overcome its shortcomings, fully tap its yield-increasing potential, and achieve the goals of high yield, stable yield, and high efficiency.

Different varieties have different growth and development characteristics, and the required cultivation methods are not exactly the same. Corn varieties with great high-yield potential and high yield-increasing potential generally also have relatively high requirements for fertilizer and water conditions and management measures. In production practice, this requires adopting corresponding cultivation technical measures and management methods according to the specific characteristics of each variety. Only in this way can the yield-increasing potential of each variety be brought into play as much as possible. In other words, only when good varieties are matched with good methods can high yield and high efficiency be achieved.

In production, corn is required to be sown early at the proper time. Sowing early at the proper time can not only make the plants robust and the root system well developed, but also enhance stress resistance, promote early maturity, and achieve high yield.

In addition, corn is divided into spring corn and autumn corn. Spring corn is sown in late April and early May and can be harvested in late August; autumn corn should be sown no later than mid-July and is harvested in mid-to-late October.