ISTA TECHNICAL COMMITTEES 1980–83 ¹

At the ISTA Congress held in Vienna, Austria in 1980, the following Committees were reconfirmed or established:

Rules Committee
Chairman:	Mr. S.R. Cooper, Official Seed Testing Station for Scotland, East Craigs, Edinburgh EH12 8NU, Scotland, UK.

Bulking and Sampling Committee
Chairman:	Dr. A. Bould, Official Seed Testing Station for England and Wales, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 OLE, England, UK

Purity Committee
Chairman:	Mr. O. Landenmark, Statens Utsädeskontroll, S-171 73 Solna, Sweden

Vigour Test Committee
Chairman:	Dr. D.A. Perry, Scottish Horticultural Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, Scotland, UK

Germination Committee
Chairman:	Dr. J. Bekendam, Government Seed Testing Station, Binnenhaven 1, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Tetrazolium Committee
Chairman:	Mr. P. Overaa, State Seed Testing Station, Box 68, N-1432 Ås-NLH, Norway

Pelleted Seeds Committee
Chairman:	Mr J.H.B. Tonkin, Official Seed Testing Station, Skovbrynet 20, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Equipment Committee
Chairman:	Dr. E. Madsen, Danish State Seed Testing Station, Skovbrynet 20, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Plant Disease Committee
Chairman:	Dr. C. Anselme, INRA - SNES, La Minière, F-78280 Guyancourt, France

Forest Tree Seed Committee
Chairman:	Dr. A.G. Gordon, Forest Research Station, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, Surrey, England, UK

Seed Storage Committee
Chairman:	Dr. L.N. Bass, Laboratory Director, National Seed Storage Laboratory, USDA-SEA-AR, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

Seed Moisture Committee
Chairman:	Dr. D. Grabe, Agronomic Crop Science Dept., Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, U.S.A.

Variety Committee
Chairman:	Dr. G. Andersson, Swedish Seed Testing and Certification Institute, Box 1713, S-221 01 Lund, Sweden

Flower Seed Committee
Chairman:	Mr. H.A. Jensen, Danish State Seed Testing Station, Skovbrynet 20, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark

Nomenclature Committee
Chairman:	Dr. H. Pirson, Institu für Angewandte Botanik, Marseiller Str. 7, D-2000 Hamburg 36, Fed. Rep. of Germany.

Referee Testing Committee
Chairman:	Prof. A. Lovato, Laboratorio Analisi Sementi, Istituto de Agronomia, Universita di Bologna, Via Filippo Re 6, I-40126 Bologna, Italy

Statistics Committee
Chairman:	Dr. A. Bould, Official Seed Testing Station for England and Wales, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 OLE, England, UK

¹ International Seed Testing Association,
Reckenholz, P.O. Box 412, CH-8046, Zürich, Switzerland

The general terms of reference of the Forest Tree Seed Committee, chaired by Dr. A. Gordon, are:

To complete the preparation of the Forest Tree Seed Testing Handbook.
To gather information on weight replicate testing.
To study possibility of reducing number of seeds to be tested in EET and TZ test.

The Working Groups within the Forest Tree Seed Committee and their terms of reference are:

Sampling and purity
(Leader: Ing. J. Machanicek)
- To complete revision of the maximum seed lot sizes and submitted sample weights.
- To extend the definitions of pure seed and complete their incorporation into the Tree Seed Testing Handbook.
Germination of temperate species seed
(Leader: Dr. D.G.W. Edwards)
- To continue to improve the definitions of normal seedlings, with particular reference to penetrable and impenetrable germination media.
- To complete the rationalisation of species in Table 5A part 2.
- To develop vigour test for predicting, inter alia, storability of seeds.
Germination of tropical and sub-tropical seed
(Leader: Tentatively, Mr R. Ezuma)
- To develop acceptable methods for testing important tropical and sub-tropical species.
Dormancy
(Leader: Dr. B.S.P. Wang)
- To publish a literature survey and review of dormancy of very dormant forest tree species.
- To categorize very dormant species and begin long-term research in improving germination prescriptions by categories.
Excised embryo testing
(Leader: Tentatively, Mrs. E. Chirco)
- To carry out comparative tests on at least three species.
- To continue to improve the preparation techniques by species.
- To complete revision of Appendix C in preparation for incorporation into main Rules.
Tetrazolium testing
(Leader: Dr. G. Eiche)
- To consider advisability of quick testing methods for non-dormant species e.g. Abies alba.
- To compare longitudinal versus transverse sectioning for tetrazolium testing.
- To improve prescriptions for testing Fagus sylvatica.
- To compare tetrazolium versus indigo carmine testing.
- To prepare tetrazolium prescriptions for tropical seeds.
X-ray testing
(Leader: Prof. M. Simak)
- To continue to work towards incorporation of X-ray testing in the Rules.
- To continue to improve the reliability of the X-ray method for determination of germination percentage.
- To cooperate with the Pathology Working Group to examine the possibility of early detection of seed borne fungi.
Moisture content and equipment
(Leader: Dr. F. Bonner)
- To prepare the case for widening tolerance limits for moisture determination.
- To consider substituting cutting for grinding in moisture determination of large seeds.
- To gather information on reliability of electric meters.
- To collaborate with the Seed Moisture, Seed Storage and Equipment Committees.
Tree seed pathology
(Leader: not yet appointed)
- To continue to gather information on tree seed pathology testing by country.
- To consider standardization of methods for tree seed pathology testing.

Please contact the Committee or Working Group Chairmen for any further information.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMPLETE AND RETURN THE FORM ON PAGE 3 OF THIS ISSUE OF FGRI IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE RECEIVING THE PUBLICATION

ISTA TECHNICAL COMMITTEES 1980–83 1

ISTA TECHNICAL COMMITTEES 1980–83 ¹