Abstract
In a series of field trials from 1977 to 1979, steeping sugar beet seed in thiram gave slightly better plant establishment than the ethyl mercury phosphate (EMP) steep currently applied to all sugar beet seed used in England. Steeping in a phenyl mercury acetate solution gave establishment close enough to EMP steep to show that it could be used as a replacement for EMP if the latter were unavailable for agricultural use. TCMTB steep and maneb slurry were clearly inferior to EMP steep, particularly when the incidence of seed‐borne Phoma betae was high.