Novel biomaterial engineering technologies, molecular and hormone analyses to improve vegetable seed priming and production in stressful environments

Seed priming is conducted by seed technology companies to improve the quality of vegetable seeds. Primed vegetable seeds provide alleviated dormancy, fast and uniform germination, followed by sturdy and uniform seedlings to ensure improved crop production even in stressful environments. In this multi-disciplinary collaboration project between Elsoms Seeds Ltd (Spalding, UK; www.elsoms.com) and the seed science lab at Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL, Prof. G. Leubner and Dr. T. Steinbrecher, www.seedbiology.eu) we will use novel biomaterial engineering technologies, growth imaging and molecular/hormone analytics to provide innovative diagnostic tools which will enable to further improve the vegetable seed priming process. The feasibility and commercial potential of these novel agricultural technologies will be explored with the vision to further improve
priming, plantlet raising and primary crop production.