138. Prohibitions. A. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, expose for sale, or to transport for planting purposes any seed within this state:
1. Unless the test to determine the percentage of germination as required by section one hundred thirty-seven of this article, shall have been made for the calendar year in which the seed is sold, offered, or exposed for sale.
2. Not labeled in accordance with the provisions of this article or having false or misleading labeling.
3. Pertaining to which there has been false or misleading advertising.
4. Containing more than one per cent by weight of all weed seeds except as hereafter specified by the commissioner.
5. So weak or so low in germination as to be unfit for seeding purposes.
6. Represented to be "certified seed", "registered seed", "foundation seed", "phyto-inspected seed", or designated by any other term conveying similar meaning, unless such seed has been produced or collected, processed and labeled in accordance with the procedures and in compliance with the rules and regulations of an officially recognized certification agency or agencies and bears an official tag or label of such an agency.
7. Represented to be hybrid seed unless such seed conforms to the definition of hybrid presented in section one hundred thirty-six of this article; provided that this prohibition shall not apply to variety names in common trade usage at the time this law becomes effective.
8. If lawn seeds, containing more than twenty per cent inert matter which is neither a micro-organism, a nutrient, a pest control substance, a material to modify the size, shape and weight of the seed, nor other beneficial inert matter applied as a coating to such seeds for purposes of improving seed placement, or the yield or vigor of resulting seedlings.
B. It is unlawful for any person within this state:
(1) To detach, alter, deface, or destroy any label provided for in this article or the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, or to alter or substitute seed, in a manner that may defeat the purpose of this article.
(2) To disseminate any false or misleading advertising concerning seed in any manner or by any means.
(3) To hinder or obstruct in any way, any authorized person in the performance of his duties under this article.
(4) To fail to comply with a "stop-sale" order.
(5) To use the word "type" in any labeling in connection with the name of any seed.
(6) To move or otherwise handle or dispose of any lot of seed held under a "stop-sale" order or tags attached thereto, except with the written permission of the enforcing officer, and for the purpose specified therein.
(7) To sell, offer or expose for sale any color mixture of a single kind of flower seed representing four or more colors or shades, in which any one color or shade occurs in sixty per cent or more of the plants which the mixture is capable of producing, unless colors or shades and approximate percentage of each are indicated on the label.
(8) To sell, offer, or expose for sale a mixture of flower seed kinds in which any one kind is present in excess, of twenty-five per cent by seed count unless the kinds present and the approximate percentage of each are indicated on the label.
(9) To use relabeling stickers without having both the calendar month and year the germination test was completed, the sell by date and the lot number that matches the existing, original lot number. A relabeling may not occur more than one time.
Last modified: February 3, 2019