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Originally Posted by Gardadore
Wow, efisakov, I can't believe it! I am beginning to think the seed can be infected. My Amazon Chocolate this year was from fermented - I have both saved and original. Now I will be careful not to plant the saved and see if I do better with the original. It is so depressing to lose the Amazon Chocolate again since it is a favorite and after several years of planting the KBX am amazed to have that one go on me - but you have a similar experience with it. I will put in two KBX plants next year far from each other! Azoychka has also not been a problem. But with weather conditions changing each year who knows what will be hit again. I am not planting it this year. I wonder if the wilt stays in the soil and is in the seeds. Does anyone know?
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Yes, seeds can be infected, but where,on the outer seed coat or internally is to me the most important question.
Fungal pathogens such as Fusarium,for example,can be on the seed coat and fermentation helps,but does NOT eliminate all of them and data is available,or was,to indicate that even if not all are eliminated it can help,since a certain # of pathogens are needed to initiate infection.
So far,all bacterial and viral and viroid ones looked at have been found internally in the seed,and fermentation won't touch them.What they need is hot water treatment,which is complicated and there are many many threads here at Tville about how that's done.
Perhaps in the larger seed catalogs that commercial folks are given the option of hot water treated seeds,for a bit more money.
I guess the saying is,don't try this at home,let the pros do it, b/c there can be significant loss of seed viability if not done right.
Carolyn