COLD PLASMA TREATMENT
“Plasma treatment of seeds
occurs in a vacuum chamber,
where SUPER-CHARGED air is
introduced to plasma.”
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Maximum Yield USA | November 2015
PLASMA POTENTIAL
How does faster germination help? Ecologically speaking,
treated seeds would be able to out-compete weeds. As
anyone who has a home garden can attest to, one of the
biggest annoyances is the constant pulling of weeds. Weeds
rob our crops of solar energy, water and nutrients from
the soil. If our crops germinated faster in the soil and got a
jump start over the weeds, they would be the clear victors.
Faster germination times could translate into many benefits
for farmers and home growers alike from a harvesting
standpoint. Crops could be ready sooner and on our
tables earlier. This could allow for more successional
plantings and more harvests per year.
A 2005 study on plasma-treated tomato seeds
found the treated tomatoes had a 28% higher
germination rate, an 8% higher total survivability rate and an 11% higher number of
plants surviving to the transplant stage
than the non-treated control seeds.
The treated plants continued to outperform the control plants as development continued—yields were
22-26% higher for the treated seeds
and the weights per tomato were
9-16% higher in the treated versus
non-treated plants (Meiqiang et
al., 2005). Research has repeatedly shown a correlation between
plants receiving a cold plasma
treatment during their seed phase
and increased yields per plant,
including increased mass of total
yield per plant, mass per fruit, size
of fruit and quality of fruit.
Besides the obvious potential benefits of better germination, growth
and yield, the increased water absorption of plasma-treated seeds could
mean less irrigation water is needed.
This has obvious benefits to all, but
especially to farmers and growers
living in arid parts of the world, or
even those living in the suburbs
facing water restrictions during the
summer. This increased hydrophilicity can also increase the storage
time of seeds, allowing for a greater
amount of time between the treatment and the sowing of the seeds.