New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 1 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND MARKETS › Chapter III - Plant Industry › Subchapter A - Inspection and Sale of Seeds (Article 9, Agriculture and Markets Law) › Part 95 - Inspection and Sale of Seeds › Section 95.3 - Interpretation of terms used

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
In interpreting the terms used in this Act in regard to the
					 sale of unlabeled, uncleaned, and unfit seed the definitions and explanations
					 formulated by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets shall apply.
(a) "Unlabeled" seed shall be understood to
				  mean lots or parcels of seeds or mixtures of seeds which lack any or all of the
				  required items of label information for that particular kind of seed or
				  mixture.
(b) Seed "so unclean as to
				  be unfit for planting" shall be understood to mean that the seed has not been
				  subjected to the usual commercial cleaning processes to remove harmful and
				  troublesome weed seeds in such quantities that it might badly infest a field in
				  which it was planted. Seeds of wheat, oats, rye, barley, and other seeds of
				  similar size or larger will be considered to be "so unclean as to be unfit for
				  planting" if they contain 10 noxious weed seeds or more per pound. Seeds of
				  grasses, small-seeded legumes, and all other seeds smaller in size than wheat
				  will be considered to be unfit for planting if they contain noxious weed seeds
				  at a rate of 100 seeds or more per pound, except that lawn seed or lawn seeding
				  mixtures containing annual bluegrass (Poa annua) will be considered fit for
				  planting provided (1) that the name and number of annual bluegrass (Poa
				  annua)seeds per pound is stated on the label as required by paragraph 5. of
				  subdivision C. of section 137  of the Agriculture and Markets Law, or
				  (2) that annual bluegrass (Poa annua) be listed on the label as a component
				  crop seed of the lawn seed or lawn seeding mixture and that the percentage by
				  weight and percentage of germination be shown.
(c) Agricultural seeds will be considered to
				  be "so weak or low in germination as to be unfit for seeding purposes" if the
				  percentage germination obtained in a standard laboratory test is less than two
				  thirds of the minimum germination percentage specified for certified seed of
				  the kind in question in the latest minimum standards adopted by the
				  International Crop Improvement Association. Vegetable and flower seeds will be
				  considered to be unfit for planting if the germination percentage obtained in a
				  standard laboratory test is less than two thirds of the germination standard
				  for the kind in question specified in these rules and regulations. Seeds of
				  kinds not listed in the minimum certification standards of the International
				  Crop Improvement Association nor in the vegetable and flower seed standards set
				  forth in these rules and regulations will be considered to be unfit for
				  planting if they show no germination or distinctly weak vitality, or produce so
				  few seedlings as to make a satisfactory stand in the field impossible at normal
				  planting rates.
(d) Seed shall not
				  be considered to have been packaged or tested for the calendar year in which it
				  is sold, offered or exposed for sale unless a test to determine the percentage
				  germination shall have been made during the nine-month period immediately
				  preceding the date on which the seed is sold, offered or exposed for
				  sale.
(e) The term "standard
				  testing procedures" as used in this article shall be understood to mean
				  procedures adopted by the Association of Official Seed Analysts and published
				  in the most recent edition of the "Rules for Testing Seed" of that
				  Association.