Greg Baute procured a small bottle of, what I believe to be, Monsanto-manufactured Acceleron DC-309 for fungicidal treatment of seeds in preparation for export. It wasn’t labeled as Accelron, but did have a seed treatment label for a related chemical taped to the outside. Based on Greg’s earlier emails and with this information, and Winnie’s confidence, I wrote “Acceleron” on the bottle in Sharpie. It’s a small red bottle. Should you need to use it, Winnie typed up the following protocol. There are links to safety documents at the end of this post. Be sure to wear Nitrile, not natural rubber, gloves.
How to apply fungicide to Greg Baute’s sunflower seeds
- Make sure you wear gloves!
- Take a falcon tube, a dropper, the fungicide and sunflower seeds to the fume hood
- Put sunflower seeds into the falcon tube (depending on the size of the seed, you might need to grab a 25mL/small one for small seeds or 50mL/large one for larger seeds)
- Use a dropper and put 3-4 drops of fungicide into the falcon tube and seal the lid
- It is now safe to bring the falcon tube with the fungicide and seeds out from the fume hood. Use the vortex to mix the fungicide and seed. Shake them for about 10-15 seconds.
- Return to the fume hood and open the lid, take seed out.
- Repeat for next package of seed
Have fun! But please be safe.
Chemical’s home page: http://www.acceleronsts.com/Corn/Pages/Resources.aspx
Seed treatment product label: http://www.acceleronsts.com/Corn/Documents/DC309.pdf
EPA Chemical Resistance Category Selection Chart: http://oeh.cals.cornell.edu/sites/oeh.cals.cornell.edu/files/shared/documents/pesticides/EPAChemRes.pdf