The present invention addresses the problem of providing a composition that has excellent plant disease controlling effects and provides a plant disease control composition that includes a new strain of Bacillus, APM-1 (New strain of Bacillus, APM-1), which has been deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA-4838, and one or more ubiquinol oxidase Qo site inhibitor.

The present invention, which addresses the problem of providing a composition that has an excellent effect of controlling plant disease, provides a plant disease control composition that includes the Bacillus strain APM-1 (New strain of Bacillus, APM-1) which is deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA-4838 and at least one compound selected from the group consisting of ethaboxam, tolclofos-methyl, metalaxyl, fludioxonil, and a carboxamide compound represented by formula (1).

A device for the inoculation of seeds is attached to a seed meter or a seed box on a planting machine. This is done to carry out the inoculation and treatment of seeds at the same time that they are being planted. The device has a reservoir where the inoculant is placed and then subsequently taken by the pump to a mixture chamber. At a top of the mixture chamber is a nozzle, which is located at an opposite side of where the seeds leave. They leave from the bottom of the device. There is a drive axle and a group of gears that move and give force to the blades that mix the seeds in the fluid located in the inner part of the chamber. The chamber is connected to the seed distributor disc and the flow of seeds is based on the seed distributor disc's consumption.

A device for the inoculation of seeds is attached to a seed meter or a seed box on a planting machine. This is done to carry out the inoculation and treatment of seeds at the same time that they are being planted. The device has a reservoir where the inoculant is placed and then subsequently taken by the pump to a mixture chamber. At a top of the mixture chamber is a nozzle, which is located at an opposite side of where the seeds leave. They leave from the bottom of the device. There is a drive axle and a group of gears that move and give force to the blades that mix the seeds in the fluid located in the inner part of the chamber. The chamber is connected to the seed distributor disc and the flow of seeds is based on the seed distributor disc's consumption.

A method for controlling arthropod pests includes: step a): a step of forming furrows in the soil; step b): a step of placing, in the furrows formed in the previous step, seeds retaining one or more neonicotinoid compounds selected from group I, on the surface or in the interior, and a step of applying an aqueous dispersion or an aqueous solution containing one or more neonicotinoid compounds selected from group I to the furrows formed in the previous step; and step c): a step of covering the furrows. In step b above group I is a group selected from clothianidin, thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, and thiacloprid.

A method for controlling arthropod pests includes: step a): a step of forming furrows in the soil; step b): a step of placing, in the furrows formed in the previous step, seeds retaining one or more neonicotinoid compounds selected from group I, on the surface or in the interior, and a step of applying an aqueous dispersion or an aqueous solution containing one or more neonicotinoid compounds selected from group I to the furrows formed in the previous step; and step c): a step of covering the furrows. In step b above group I is a group selected from clothianidin, thiamethoxam, imidacloprid, and thiacloprid.

The invention relates to a method for preparing disinfected seed, a use of a treatment composition, and an apparatus for disinfecting of seed. The method of the invention comprises contacting seed with a treatment composition comprising at least one disinfecting agent and/or a liquid component, and thereafter or at least partly simultaneously, exposing said seed to a treatment atmosphere for an exposure time of at least 1 second, wherein the treatment atmosphere has a relative humidity of at least 50% and a temperature of at least 40 C.

Novel alkynyl-substituted 3-phenylpyrrolidine-2,4-diones and use thereof as herbicides

The present invention relates to novel effective alkynyl-substituted 3-phenylpyrrolidine-2,4-diones according to the general formula (I) or agrochemically acceptable salts thereof,

##STR00001##

where

XC.sub.1-C.sub.4-alkyl, C.sub.1-C.sub.4-haloalkyl or C.sub.3-C.sub.6-cycloalkyl; YC.sub.1-C.sub.4-alkyl or C.sub.3-C.sub.6-cycloalkyl; n=1, 2 or 3; m=1 or 2; R.sup.1=C.sub.1-C.sub.6-alkyl, or C.sub.3-C.sub.6-cycloalkyl; R.sup.2=hydrogen or methyl; R.sup.3C.sub.1-C.sub.3-alkoxy-C.sub.1-C.sub.3-alkyl, or a saturated five- or six-membered heterocycle with an oxygen or sulphur atom; G=hydrogen, a cleavable group L or a cation E.

The invention also relates to the use of the compounds according to the invention for controlling weeds and weed grasses in crops of useful plants.

One aspect of the present invention is an antimicrobial agent including at least one of Bacillus subtilis and a culture of Bacillus subtilis, the Bacillus subtilis showing a peak at at least one mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) selected from the group consisting of a range of 3045.50.58 (m/z), a range of 6942.50.58 (m/z), and a range of 9140.50.58 (m/z) in mass analysis by means of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).

An information processing device that can easily predict the seed quality is provided. An information processing device includes an information acquiring unit configured to acquire, as seed management information about a seed to be predicted, a state of a plant for seed collection from which the seed is collected, and a state of the seed; and a generation processing unit configured to generate seed quality information for the seed to be predicted, by inputting the seed management information acquired by the information acquiring unit into a learning model that has been taught, through machine learning, a correlation between the seed management information about a seed being a training object and the seed quality information indicating quality related to germination or maturity of the seed.