SOUTH DAKOTA SEED CERTIFICATION STANDARDS

Sunflower

Seed Certification Standards

I. General
A. The General Seed Certification Standards, (see the Standard's Home Page) are basic and are modified for sunflower as follows:
1. A commercial hybrid is one to be planted for any use except seed production.

2. Only the class "Certified" is recognized in seed of commercial hybrids.

3. The classes "Breeder" and "Foundation" shall be recognized for parental materials used  for the production of commercial hybrids.

4. A commercial hybrid to be Certified must be produced from Breeder or Foundation seed stock approved by the certifying agency.

II. Land Requirements
A crop will not be eligible for certification if planted on land where sunflowers were grown the previous year.

III. Field Inspection -- Open Pollinated Varieties and Hybrids
At least three field inspections shall be made: one inspection during the bud to early bloom stage and two inspections during bloom.

IV. Field Standards
A. Flowering. In a crossing field for the production of Certified hybrid sunflower seed, at least 50% of the male parent plants must be flowering and producing pollen at the time the female parent is in full bloom. Female parent plants flowering and shedding pollen before the male parent plants are shedding pollen must be removed and disposed of in a manner that will prevent contamination.

B. Isolation. Fields to be used for the production of all classes of Certified seed must be isolated at least 5280 feet from other varieties, hybrids, strains, wild Helianthus species, volunteer sunflowers and non-certified crops of the same type.

C. The unit of certification shall be a field or a portion of a field separated by a strip at least ten feet wide which is either mowed, uncropped or planted to some other separable crop.

D. Roguing. In increase fields of parental materials to be used for the production of commercial hybrids and in the male rows of commercial hybrid production fields, all off-types must be removed before pollination has taken place. The heads of rogued plants must be disposed of in a manner which will prevent their pollen from being disseminated.

Corn plants bearing seed must be removed before harvest as well as other crops the seed of which are difficult to separate in the conditioning process.

E. Standards for seed-borne diseases in sunflowers are not specified; however, disease may be cause for rejection if the overall quality of the seed will be adversely affected.

F. Off-types, all seed classes:

* Other varieties (off-types) shall be considered to include plants that can be differentiated from the variety that is being inspected. Other varieties shall not include variations which are characteristic of the variety.

V. Seed Standards

* Not more than two purple seeds or two white seeds per pound will be allowed in the Certified class. Other varieties shall not include variations which are characteristic of the variety.

VI. Pre-Control Test Standards
A. Samples from all Certified inbred and hybrid seed fields shall be entered in approved pre-control tests.

B. If field inspection shows one or more of the following, the applicant may request that seed certification be based on the percent of hybrids shown in the pre-control test:

- inadequate isolation
- too few male parent plants shedding pollen when female parent plants are receptive
- excess off types not to include wild types
- excess pollen shedding plants in female parent

In such cases, 2000 plants must be observed in the pre-control test before hybrid seed can be Certified from fields with problems listed above.

VII. Post-Control Test Standards

* For non-oil types, seed which contains not more than 15% sterile plants may be Certified. If the seed lot contains 85% to 95% hybrid plants, the percentage of hybrid shall be shown on the certification label.

Web page last modified on March 06, 2000 by Kay Ruden.