Customise the seeds, not the seeder: Pelleting of small-seeded species for ecological restoration

Direct native seed planting is a cost-effective and popular approach for restoring degraded terrestrial ecosystems. However, the handling and precision seeding of multispecies mixes with diverse seed sizes, and shapes is logistically complex, requires highly customised equipment and often results in poor seedling establishment. This issue is accentuated in small-seeded species, where handling difficulties and a lack of precision placement result in seed wastage. The agricultural seed sector relies on the application of external material to small seeds to improve handling via seed pelleting. Yet this method has been rarely tested on small-seeded native species for ecological restoration.