Paper PB+BI+PS-MoA4
Growth of Plasma-Treated Corn Seeds under Realistic Conditions

Monday, October 30, 2017, 2:40 pm, Room 12

Plasma treatments of agricultural seeds have been proposed to enhance germination and improve growth rate by elimination of unwanted microbes, water absorption control, introducing functional groups or other effects. In particular, making a plasma-activated medium which has nitrogen as its main component can affect the efficiency of water use in the germination phase. There is also a remarkable complementary effect between plasma treatments and biological pre-treatment. To confirm the plasma effects seen in the lab scale, this work seeks to investigate a variety of seed treatments on an industrial agriculture scale.

In this study, various kinds of plasma were introduced for mass treatment of corn seeds to investigate the germination and growth effect. The seed utilized for the experiment is an elite 111 days yellow dent corn hybrid adapted to the US Midwest. Seven experimental treatments were evaluated: Control, Biological treatment only, Plasma Activated Water (PAW) treatment, Atmospheric Pressure DBD Plasma, Microwave Atmospheric Plasma, Vacuum Plasma and Just Vacuum. The corn seeds were treated uniformly by one-layer arrangement on each stage without burning or blackening by the plasma. Each treatment was performed on a total of 1800 corn seeds. Seed of each experimental condition were treated with the recommended rate of Poncho Votivo with Acceleron, a commercial biological seed treatment that helps protect the seeds from fungus, insects, and nematodes after planting. The 1800 seeds were divided evenly into three replications with 100 seeds planted for each replication at six unique locations across central Illinois. The results of germination, growth, and product yield over the 2017 growing season will be presented.