The osmotic conditioning and fungicide treatments of seeds have presented good results in vigor improvement and seedling protection against microorganisms associated to the seeds and soil, thus guaranteeing good stand establishment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of osmotic conditioning and fungicide treatment on the physiological quality of beet seeds. The seeds were conditioned in water, KNO³ (0.34 M), PEG 6000 (-0.8 MPa). The treatments with fungicides were: control (seeds treated by the seed producing Company with Thiran to 0,15%), metalaxil (0,004%), procimidone (0,1%) and metalaxil + procimidone (0,004 + 0,1%). The following characteristics were evaluated: first count, count on the eighth day and final day for the germination test; emergence, emergence speed and index of emergence speed in commercial substratum and soil. A randomized complete design was used, factorial arragement (conditioning x treatment with fungicides), with four replications, and the means were compared by the Duncan test at 5% probability. Conditioning of the seeds in water for 16h, associated with the treatment with the fungicide Metalaxil fungicide (0.004%) presented the best results in the germination test and in the seedling establishment in soil.
Beta vulgaris var crassa; priming; damping off; emergence in soil
