Seed requirement for grass varieties

PVRO has concerns regarding the effect of endophyte present in seed on the expression of morphological characters used in DUS testing.

These effects are not well documented and there is uncertainty regarding the significance on the determination of DUS.

The presence of endophyte in seed adds a variable to testing and reduces the quality of the test result. For this reason, all DUS testing for grass varieties, as carried out by PVRO, now requires the use of endophyte free seed.

All seed submitted for use in the grass DUS centralised trialling must be endophyte free and will apply from the beginning of the 2011-2012 trialling season for all applications for varieties of grass species received after 14 October 2010.

This requirement will not apply to any variety currently under test.
Endophyte free is defined as having a level of endophyte present in the seed sample of less than five percent.

Should the submitted seed sample at application or for testing not be determined free of endophyte, a second seed sample will be requested. All submitted seed samples supplied at application and any additional seed requested or supplied for DUS testing will be subject to random testing for the presence of endophyte.