WAC 16-301-005
General seed standards -- Definitions. Definitions for terms used in this chapter and in chapters 16-302 and 16-303 WAC may be found in chapter 15.49 RCW, seed.
For the purposes of these chapters, the following definitions
shall apply unless otherwise provided for in law or rule:
"Agricultural seed" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(2)
includes grass, forage, cereal, oil, fiber, and other kinds of
crop seeds commonly recognized within this state as
agricultural seeds, lawn seeds, and combination of such seeds,
and may include common and restricted noxious weed seeds but
not prohibited noxious weed seeds.
"AOSA" means the Association of Official Seed Analysts.
"AOSCA" means the Association of Official Seed Certifying
Agencies.
"Approved trial grounds" means a specific parcel of land
approved by the director for experimental or limited
production or increase of bean seed.
"Arbitration committee" means the committee established
by the director under RCW 15.49.101 to hear and make
determinations in mandatory, nonbinding, arbitration cases.
"Bean" means common beans and adzuki beans.
"Blend" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(3) means seed
consisting of more than one variety of a species, each in
excess of five percent by weight of the whole.
"Blending" as related to this chapter shall be the
process of commingling two or more lots of seed to form one
lot of uniform quality.
"Buyer" means a person who purchases seeds.
"Chairperson" means the person selected by the
arbitration committee from among their numbers to preside.
"Certifying agency" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(5) means:
(a) An agency authorized under the laws of any state,
territory, or possession to certify seed officially and which
has standards and procedures approved by the United States
secretary of agriculture to assure the genetic purity and
identity of the seed certified; or
(b) An agency of a foreign country determined by the
United States Secretary of Agriculture to adhere to procedures
and standards for seed certification comparable to those
adhered to generally by seed-certifying agencies under (a) of
this subsection.
"Common bean" means Phaseolus vulgaris L.
"Complete record" means information which relates to the
origin, treatment, germination and purity (including variety)
of each lot of seed. Records include seed samples and records
of declaration, labels, purchases, sales, cleaning, bulking,
treatment, handling, storage, analyses, tests and
examinations.
"Dealer" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(7) means any person
who distributes seeds.
"Department" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(8) means the
Washington state department of agriculture or its duly
authorized representative.
"Director" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(9) means the
director of the department of agriculture.
"Field standards" means the tolerances permitted as
determined by established field inspection procedures.
"Fiscal year" means the twelve-month period July 1
through June 30.
"Flower seeds" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(11) include
seeds of herbaceous plants grown for their blooms, ornamental
foliage, or other ornamental parts, and commonly known and
sold as flower seeds in this state.
"Germination" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(13) means the
emergence and development from the seed embryo of those
essential structures which, for the kind of seed in question,
are indicative of the ability to produce a normal plant under
favorable conditions.
"Interagency certification" means the participation of
two or more official certifying agencies in performing the
services required to certify the same lot or lots of seed.
"Isolation standards" means the distance in feet from any
contaminating source (i.e., distance from other fields of same
species).
"Label" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(18) includes a tag or
other device attached to or written, stamped, or printed on
any container or accompanying any lot of bulk seeds purporting
to set forth the information required on the seed label by
chapter 15.49 RCW, and may include other information including
the requirement for arbitration.
"Land standards" means the number of years that must
elapse between the destruction of a stand of a kind, and
establishment of a stand of a specified class of a variety of
the same kind (i.e., number of years out of production of same
crop kind).
"Mixture, mixed or mix" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(22)
means seed consisting of more than one species, each in excess
of five percent by weight of the whole.
"Nursery" means an area of two acres or less in which
grass for seed production is seeded in rows with twenty-four
inch minimum spacing to facilitate roguing.
"O.E.C.D." means the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development certification scheme.
"Off-type" means a plant or seed which deviates in one or
more characteristics from that which has been described as
being usual for the strain or variety.
"Official certificate" means a document issued by an
official testing agency including but not limited to seed
certification tags, bulk seed certification certificates,
phyto-sanitary certificates, laboratory sanitary certificates,
and other letters, tags, stamps, or similar documents
certifying seed quality or condition.
"Official sample" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(23) means
any sample taken and designated as official by the department.
"Official seed laboratory" means a seed testing
laboratory approved by the director, such as, but not limited
to, Washington State Seed Laboratory, 21 N 1st Avenue, Yakima,
Washington; and Oregon State Seed Laboratory, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, Oregon. This definition is to include
any laboratory that has an accreditation process in place.
"Origin" means the county within the state of Washington,
or the state, territory, or country where a specific seed lot
was grown.
"Person" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(26) means an
individual, partnership, corporation, company, association,
receiver, trustee or agent.
"Proprietary variety" means that crop variety for which a
person has exclusive production and/or marketing rights.
"Representative sample" means a sample drawn in
accordance with sampling procedures adopted in WAC 16-301-095.
"Seeds" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(33) means
agricultural or vegetable seeds, or other seeds as determined
by rules adopted by the department.
"Seed labeling permit" means a permit issued by the
department pursuant to RCW 15.49.400 to a person labeling seed
for distribution in this state.
"Seed program advisory committee" means a committee of
representatives from the small grains, pea, lentil, bean,
vegetable, small seeded legumes, and grass seed industries
selected by the program manager in consultation with the
industry.
"Seed standards" means the tolerances permitted as
determined by established seed inspection procedures.
"Serology" means precipitation, agglutination,
immunodiffusion, or labeled antibody test methods (such as
ELISA) that use the specificity of antigen-antibody reactions
to detect and identify antigenic substances and the organisms
such as viruses and bacteria that carry viruses.
"Stock seed" means breeders, prebasic, or like initial
generation of seed.
"Sudangrass" means Sorghum bicolor x drummondii.
"University" means the Washington State University.
"USDA" means the United States Department of Agriculture.
"Vegetable seeds" as defined in RCW 15.49.011(38) include
the seeds of all crops that are grown in gardens and on truck
farms and are generally known and sold under the name of
vegetable or herb seeds in this state.
"WSCIA" means the Washington State Crop Improvement
Association.
[Statutory Authority: Chapters 15.49 and 34.05 RCW. 06-17-041, § 16-301-005, filed 8/8/06, effective 9/8/06;
03-18-072, § 16-301-005, filed 8/29/03, effective 9/29/03. Statutory Authority: RCW 15.49.005, 15.49.081, 15.49.310,
15.49.370(3) and chapter 17.24 RCW. 00-24-077, § 16-301-005,
filed 12/4/00, effective 1/4/01.]