Plant Industry - Seed Section

Seed Testing Laboratory

The Seed Testing Laboratory provides a number of services to the citizens of North Carolina including farmers, seedsmen and homeowners. These services include regulatory monitoring and testing of seeds being offered for sale to assure the seed consumer is able to buy truthfully labeled seed. Also, the laboratory provides free service testing of many kinds of seeds including all major agricultural seeds and lawn and turf seeds. Standardized purity and germination tests are run to determine the planting value of the submitted seed samples. In addition, the laboratory offers tests to determine varietal purity and vigor. Accelerated aging and electrophoresis are available only on a limited basis where seed performance complaints are involved.

**SEED LABORATORY SAMPLE REPORT - 2006**
Regulatory Seed Samples	Service Seed Samples	Total
2,862	6,598	9,460
(A total of 12,9011 individual tests were conducted on the above samples.)

Seed Sample Status Information

Photographic Tour of the Seed Testing Laboratory

Send Seed Samples To:

By US Mail -

By UPS -

Phone: (919) 733-3930
Fax: (919) 733-1041

When sending a sample, please include:

Your name
Complete address
Phone number
E-mail address
Kind, Variety and Lot number of each sample
New or old seed
Treatment (fungicide or insecticide) used

Also indicate any other individuals and their addresses to whom you would like sample report copies sent.

Please make your lot numbers distinctive. If we have many Lot 1's, etc., it is difficult to find your sample in our data base.

When submitting a mixture include a list of components and their percentages. This information is necessary for accurate testing.

Please send the following amount of seed:

Two ounces (approximately 55 grams) of grass seed, alsike or white clover, or seeds not larger than these.
Five ounces (approximately 150 grams) of alfalfa, bromegrass, crimson or red clover, flax, lespedeza. millet, rape, ryegrass or seeds of similar size.
One pound of proso, sudangrass, or seeds of a similar size.
Two pounds (approximately 1000 grams) of cereals, vetches, sorghums, or seeds of a similar size.
Vegetable seed shall consist of at least 400 seeds per sample.

The NCDA&CS Seed Testing Laboratory conducts:

Purity
Germination
Noxious weed seed examination
Cold test (corn)
Cool test (cotton)
Sand test
tetrazolium

We can also conduct by request:

Accelerated aging
Phenol (wheat)
Peroxidase (soybeans)
Hypocotyl color test
Fluorescence of ryegrass

All tests performed in the laboratory are free except for tetrazolium (TZ). There is a five dollar ($5.00) charge for each TZ test. Send at least 400 seed per TZ sample.

Be sure to package your sample securely. If a sample arrives damaged in transit, we might need to request a replacement sample in order to give you accurate test results.

Use the following link to access the Seed Test Request Form:

For Additional Information Contact:
Seed Section, Patricia Stowe, Seed Laboratory Supervisor
Mailing Address: 1060 Mail Service Center, Raleigh NC 27699-1060
Physical Address: 216 West Jones Street, Raleigh NC 27603
Phone: (919) 733-3930 ext. 212 ; FAX: (919) 733-1041

NCDA CS Plant Industry Division, Gene B. Cross, Director
Mailing Address: 1060 Mail Service Center, Raleigh NC 27699-1060
Physical Address: 216 West Jones Street, Raleigh NC 27603
Phone: (919) 733-3933; FAX: (919) 733-1041