The use of polymers has been recommended for the treatment of seeds of those species that absorb water quickly, causing seed damage by imbibition, such as the soybean case. When the sowing is accomplished in soils with a low drainage capacity, a significant reduction in the seedling emergence may occur if sowing coincides with the high pluviometric index. The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of film coated soybean seeds in soils with different water contents. Seeds were treated with the fungicide Tegram (thiabendazole + thiram) at a dosage of 200mL/100kg of seeds associated to the polymers. For the film coating of the seeds the polymers L201 and L204 were applied at the dosages of 0mL, 200mL and 400mL/100kg of seeds. After the treatment the seeds were sown in soils with 50, 70 and 90% of the field capacity for evaluations in the emergence tests in tray and cold test. Evaluations were also made using the standard germination test, submersion, emergence in flowerbed. According to the results it was observed that the film coating promotes an increase in seedling emergence when under ideal conditions, regardeless the polymer used. Under stress conditions, the film coating reduces the seeds vigor.
Imbibition; polymers; germination; emergence
