Abstract
Surface sowing is one of the most important methods to establish and improve grassland. An interest in seed-coating technique for surface sowing has been increased tremendously in the world today. An experiment was conducted to develop a technique for pelleting seeds for pasture production in woodlands. Results showed that pelleting seeds was a better technique than coating seeds because the pelleting reduced coating time of seeds, and it increased the amounts of coated seeds per hour. The pelleting technique was able to minimize damage to seeds through the lower temperature processing and by reducing time for drying, thus, germinating energy, and germination rate of pelleted alfalfa seeds improved. Emergence, establishment, and early growth of alfalfa from pelleted seeds were also improved in woodlands. Based on this study, we could conclude that the seed-pelleting is a very useful technique for the establishment and early growth of alfalfa in woodlands.
