THE INFLUENCE OF AGING OF SEED ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOOSE SMUT IN BARLEY
For several years after their production, 15 stocks of barley seed, infected with Ustilago nuda (Jens.) Rostr., produced approximately the same average percentage of smutted plants in growth tests as the average percentage of infected embryos found in the seed. As the seed became older, this was no longer true. Some samples produced less smut after six years, while others continued to produce similar amounts up to the ninth year, but eventually all samples produced decidedly lower percentages of smut. The average percentage of smutted plants in crops grown from these samples became less with each succeeding year after the sixth in nearly all instances. In the stocks of barley seed studied, the average amount of smut in the growing crop declined from about 14% initially to only 3.2% at the end of the 11-year period.The main reason for the decline in percentage infection was the successively larger proportions of infected seeds that failed to germinate as the seed became aged, as compared with the slower loss of viability in the healthy seeds. A close correlation was found between the length of time required for aged seeds to germinate and the percentage of such seeds carrying smut in their embryos.