Citation
Martinez Ramirez, Elvira and Carbonell Padrino, Maria Victoria and Florez Garcia, Mercedes and Amaya Garcia de la Escosura, Jose Manuel
(2008).
Effect of Static Magnetic Field Exposure of Salvia Seeds on Germination Characteristics (Salvia officinalis, L.).
In: "13th International Conference Byosistems Engineering and processes in Agriculture", 25/09/2008-26/09/2008, Kaunas, Lituania.
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of magnetic treatment, in addition to the geomagnetic field, on germination of salvia officinalis L. seeds. This objective has a practice application in agriculture science: to obtain an early growth of salvia. A great development of crops of medicinal, condimentary and aromatic plants crops is taking place in Mediterranean countries due to their high added value as consequence of the Fitotherapy reappearance among other reasons. In recent decades magnetic treatment of seeds became very popular in agricultural sector. Salvia seeds were exposed to 125 mT stationary magnetic field generated by magnets for different time: 10 minutes (A1), 20 minutes (A2), 1hour (A3), 24 hours (A4) and chronic exposure (A5). Other group of seeds were subjected to a magnetic pretreatment (P1). Not exposed seeds were used as control (C). Germination tests were performed at temperature 20-22ºC under laboratory conditions. The selected germination parameters were: time for the first seed to germinate (T1), time to reach 10, 25% etc. germination (T10, T25, T50 and T75), number of germinated seeds (Gmax) and the mean germination time (MGT), all of them were provided by the Seedcalculator software package. Results indicate that magnetic field application enhanced the seed performance in terms of laboratory germination, rate and percentage of germination compared to unexposed (C). The germination parameters recorded for salvia seeds and for each treatment and pretreatment were lower than corresponding control value. Among the various treatments, chronic exposure to 125mT (A5) gave best results. Data obtained for salvia treated seeds showed that MGT was significantly reduced compared to control ones (79.68 h for A3, 81.84 h for A4, 75.60 h for A5, and 81.60 h for P1 vs. 95.28 h for control). Parameters (T1-T50) and MGT were also significantly reduced for treatments A2, A3, A4, A5 and P1.
