Seed Multiplication and Maintenance

• Published in: Soybean Breeding pp. 413 - 426
• Main Authors: da Silva, Laércio Junio, de Souza Júnior, Reginaldo Castro, dos Santos Júnior, Hamilton Carvalho
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2017; Springer International Publishing
• Subjects: Agricultural science; Botany & plant sciences; Commercial seeds; Genetic purity; Plant reproduction & propagation; Seed certification; Seed production
• ISBN: 3319574329; 9783319574325
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57433-2_22

The seeds are the instruments that lead to the farmer all the technology invested during the breeding of a certain cultivar. Thus, seed multiplication and maintenance stages are critical to the success of any breeding program. The breeding companies must maintain a minimum stock of genetic seeds, which corresponds to the first generation of a cultivar, and these should be maintained with high purity. These seeds are multiplied to meet the demand for seeds by grain producers. Therefore, special cares are essentials during multiplication of these seeds, aiming the maintenance of their identity and genetic purity. In this sense, some procedures are necessaries during all stages of seed production to reduce to the minimum the risks of contamination, as isolation of the fields destined for seed production, cleaning of machinery, identification and removal of plants that do not correspond to the cultivar planted, and certification of the genetic purity of seed lots. A general discussion of these topics is addressed in this chapter.