Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis [Beetle & A. Young] S. L. Welsh) is a species of great concern due to its massive reduction in the past century. This species is challenging to incorporate into restoration projects due to its small seed and accompanying nonseed parts, which impedes flow and broadcast distance. In addition, seeding efforts commonly fail to produce plant densities that are sufficient to meet management objectives. Seed conglomeration is a novel technique that improves seed delivery and may also enhance plant establishment. We evaluated how seed conglomeration influences Wyoming big sagebrush plant emergence and establishment, for seed sown in the fall and winter, at five sites throughout Utah and Nevada. We found that seed conglomeration improved emergence by 60% and plant establishment by 26% in comparison with untreated seed. We estimate that this improvement in seeding success reduces the cost to produce established plants by 6%, which comes on top of a 55% savings provided by the technology through decreased time and labor required to sow the seed. We also found that the influence of planting season varied by site, with a fall planting outperforming a winter planting at two sites, a winter planting outperforming a fall planting at one site, and at the other two sites planting season had no effect. This finding is somewhat contrary to traditional seeding recommendations for Wyoming big sagebrush, which suggest seeding success will be higher with a winter planting. On the basis of these research results, further evaluations are merited to continue the development and assessment of seed conglomeration technology. Research should also continue to explore how planting date influences seeding success. Overall, this research does not provide strong justification for land managers to delay planting until winter and suggests they could be planting in the fall.

怀俄明州大山艾( Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis)[Beetle & A. Young] SL Welsh) 是一个非常受关注的物种，因为它在过去的一个世纪里大量减少。由于该物种的种子很小，并且伴随着非种子部分，这阻碍了流动和传播距离，因此很难将其纳入恢复项目。此外，播种工作通常无法产生足以满足管理目标的植物密度。种子聚集是一种新技术，可以改善种子交付，也可以促进植物建立。我们在犹他州和内华达州的五个地点评估了种子聚集如何影响怀俄明州大山艾树植物的出苗和生长，对于秋季和冬季播种的种子。我们发现，与未经处理的种子相比，种子聚集使出苗率提高了 60%，植株建立率提高了 26%。我们估计，这种播种成功率的提高将生产已建立植物的成本降低了 6%，这是该技术通过减少播种所需的时间和劳动力节省 55% 的成本之上的。我们还发现种植季节的影响因地点而异，两个地点的秋季种植优于冬季种植，一个地点的冬季种植优于秋季种植，而其他两个地点的种植季节没有影响。这一发现与怀俄明州大山艾树的传统播种建议有些相反，后者表明冬季播种的播种成功率会更高。在这些研究成果的基础上，值得进一步评估以继续进行种子聚合技术的开发和评估。研究还应继续探索播种日期如何影响播种成功。总的来说，这项研究并没有为土地管理者将种植推迟到冬天提供强有力的理由，并表明他们可以在秋季种植。