The Emergence and Survival of Digitaria eriantha and Chloris gayana Seedlings on Mine Tailings Planted with Coated and Non-Coated Seed

The Emergence and Survival of Digitaria eriantha and Chloris gayana Seedlings on Mine Tailings Planted with Coated and Non-Coated Seed

The importance of vegetation in the process of rehabilitation and stabilisation of mined land is becoming more critical as the size of the affected areas and the impact on urban development increases. Successful establishment of vegetation on these areas are complicated by adverse physical and chemical properties of the growth mediums. These include; soil compaction, acidity, salinity and heavy metal contamination, extreme temperatures, low soil water contents and soil erosion (Oncel et al. 2000; Turner et al. 2006; Aken et al. 2007). Many of these soil/substrate conditions mentioned limit the establishment of vegetation from seed. Seed coating technologies have become a possible solution to address difficult seeding challenges to ultimately facilitate more successful establishment of vegetation in these hostile environments (Turner et al. 2006). From humble beginnings seed coating has developed into technologies that can be used to ameliorate the root zone to an extent by chemically changing the environment, aerating the root zone or by improving the seedlings health through the inoculation of seedling environment with beneficial micro-organisms (Harman 1991; Thrall et al. 2005; Turner et al. 2006). These specific attributes are not always clear and environmental specialists do not always know they have access to technologies that can change the micro-environment of a seedling.