Forest Tree and Shrub Seed Committee

Chair	Elisa Vieira
Vice	Victor Vankus
Member	Show Member
ECOM liaison officer	Steve Jones

Aim:

To generate information that will contribute to a revision of current methods and to the introduction of new methods and species into the ISTA International Rules for Seed Testing.
To develop procedures for proficiency testing of forest tree and shrub seeds in order to have at least one Proficiency Test round in each three-year period of the ISTA Accreditation Programme.
To organise workshops and meetings dealing exclusively with methods for quality evaluation of tree and shrub seeds.
To revise the ISTA Tree and Shrub Seed Handbook.

Together with OECD, the committee has produced an e-Handbook on tree and shrub seeds with data and images. Currently, FTS Committee members are from South and North America, Europe, and Asia. The Committee would warmly welcome seed analysts and scientists from Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. There are many tree and shrub species from the southern hemisphere, especially the tropics, for which methods are needed, in the evaluation of seed quality, seed storage, breaking dormancy, and maximising germination.

FTS Committee activities are mainly focused on the development of test methods that can be introduced into the ISTA Rules and be applied to species used in international trade.

The FTS Committee shares technical knowledge with other ISTA Technical Committees, especially those for Bulking and Sampling, Purity, Germination, Tetrazolium, Moisture, and Rules.

Contact the FTS Committee with your suggestions regarding the introduction into the ISTA Rules of both new species and new methods, or other proposals like to host a workshop or develop special projects using woody seed species.

Documents

Working Programme

Activity Reports