Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Post-mining reclamation regulation is complex and requires the resource extraction industry to establish a fully functioning plant community of herbaceous, shrubs, and trees. Most often, the envisioned plant communities are achieved using nursery stock seedlings. A cost-effective alternative method to re-establish plantcommunities is by direct seeding. The successful use of seeds in reclamation sites is constrained by a very poor establishment of sown seeds. Poor seed-to-soil contact, loss of seed due to predation, and seed dormancy are among the main factors limiting seedling emergence and plants establishment success. Seed coating is thepractice of covering single seed or multiple seeds of the same or different species into a single dispersal unitwith active ingredients. The application of this technology to native shrubs and forbs could provide a solution to challenges that reclamation enterprises encounter while applying direct broadcast seeding on reclamationsites. This project aims at assisting a small enterprise in developing methods for multi-seed pellets of shrub andforb and testing their germination and seedling growth. The project will assess the addition of three different filler materials with an organic binder to coat two seed species from two shrubs and two forbs; followed bygermination testing in the lab and greenhouse. The project outcomes will equip nurseries and reclamationenterprises with efficient seed enhancement methodology, which they do not have access to due to'commercial-in-confidence' by the major multinational seed companies. Small- to medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) also lack the capability to conduct scientific experiments and develop their seed coating recipes. It is anticipated that the findings of the study will increase efficiency in the commercial seeding process, improve seed emergence and survival rate, reduce the cost of reclamation, and allow restoration practitioners toestablish plant species diversity in reclamation sites.