Stands from atesta (bald) seed 10 and 20 days after planting were 32.0 and 35.5% less than stands from intact seed in field plots. Thirty-two and 62 days after planting the fresh weights of plants from bald seed were 32.3 and 15.3% less than those from intact seed. Pod yield of plants from bald seed was 20.4% less than that from intact seed. Sound mature kernels (SMK) produced by plants from bald seed was 1.2% less than the SMK from intact seed. When plant populations in field plots were adjusted by covariance analysis to equal numbers, no difference in yield was predicted. Plants grown from bald and intact seed in field microplots fumigated with metam-sodium had no difference in yield or SMK. Bald seed germinated in 24 hr cycles of 20 C/16 hr + 30 C/8 hr had fewer normal rapid and more normal slow germinating seedlings than intact seed. At temperatures of 30 C/16 hr + 20 C/8 hr, there was no difference in germination percentages. In soil infested with Aspergillus niger van Tieghem at 21 C/12 hr + 27 C/12 hr there was no difference in seedling emergence from bald or intact seed after 22 days. At temperatures of 15 C/12 hr + 21 C/12 hr, seedling emergence from bald seed in A. niger infested and noninfested soil was less than that of intact seed in control soil. Emergence of seedlings from bald seed was zero and that from intact seed was less than other treatments at both temperature regimes in soil infested with Rhizoctonia solani Kühn anastomosis group 4.