The Plant Diagnostic Lab, in collaboration with the Vegetable Extension Program, is excited to announce the launch of our newest service, hot water seed treatment. This service isis supported in part by a UConn CAHNR Innovation in Extension Programming Award and a grant from the New England Vegetable & Berry Growers Association.

The goal of hot water seed treatment is to eradicate pathogens that infest seeds. Hot water treatment enables you to start with clean seed, and strong cultural management practices (i.e. crop rotation, field sanitation, scouting, etc.) will still be important to implement on plants that grew from hot water treated seed. It is important to note that while hot water seed treatment can eliminate pathogens on and in seeds, it neither protects nor guarantees that plants will remain disease free throughout the growing season.

1. Determine if the seed you’d like to treat is commonly associated with diseases caused by seedborne pathogens (see the section below).
2. Determine if the seed you’d like to treat is a good candidate for hot water treatment (See the section below). Treating large-seeded crops such as beans, peas, cucurbits, corn, etc. that are not listed on Table 1 is not recommended because the temperature required to treat these seeds can kill the outer seed tissue and prevent germination.
3. Determine if your seed has already undergone hot water treatment or if it has been primed. This information is not always easy to find, so it is important to contact your seed supplier with specific questions. A few seed companies conduct hot water treatment, and treating the seeds a second time will damage the seeds and affect germination. Additional questions to ask include: have the seeds been certified disease-free? Were the seeds produced in a specific way to minimize exposure to seedborne pathogens?
4. Determine if your seed has a fungicide or insecticide treatment coating. This coating will wash away during hot water seed treatment, therefore rendering the coating useless. If the seed has a clay coating, this coating will also wash away but will not be detrimental to the seed.
5. Determine the age of the seed. Only treat seed that you plan to use within 1 year. Hot water treated seed does not remain viable for as long as untreated seed.

Please read the tables below carefully. If you do not see a particular crop listed, we are not currently able to perform hot water seed treatment on it. Please contact us at PlantDiagnosticLab@uconn.edu with any questions.

*Processing fee and shipping/handling policies will vary by situation. Please email us to discuss if you plan on submitting potato or yam tissue.

The below table is a general reference of the diseases treated when using hot water seed treatment.