Indian Journal of Agricultural Research

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Research Article

Indian Journal of Agricultural Research, volume 54 issue 2 (april 2020) : 154-160

Effect of Pre-Sowing Electromagnetic Processing on the Sowing and Morphological Characters of Bulgarian Pepper Varieties (Capsicum annuum)

G.M. Antonova-Karacheva1,*
1Department of Technologies in Vegetable Crops Production, Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute (MVCRI), Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Cite article:- Antonova-Karacheva G.M. (2019). Effect of Pre-Sowing Electromagnetic Processing on the Sowing and Morphological Characters of Bulgarian Pepper Varieties (Capsicum annuum) . Indian Journal of Agricultural Research. 54(2): 154-160. doi: 10.18805/IJARe.A-483.

ABSTRACT

During the period 2015-2018, a study for determining the effect of electromagnetic seed treatment on sowing qualities and morphological features of Bulgarian pepper varieties was conducted in the “Maritsa” Vegetable Crops Research Institute, Plovdiv (Maritsa VCRI). Three varieties kapia type - Sofiyska kapia, Kapia UV and Kurtovska kapia 1 were studied. The studies were performed in laboratory under controlled conditions. Pre-sowing of seeds was carried out with 15 variants with controllable factors: voltage U (kV), duration of impact ô (s) and time of stay of seeds from treatment to sowing T (days). Sowing properties were investigated: germination energy – G.E. (%) and germination - G. (%) and the following morphological features: root lengths   r (mm), hypocotyls   h (mm) and cotyledons   c(mm). The best positive effect was found in the treatment of seeds with a voltage of 6 kV, duration of exposure of 20 s and a time of seed stay - 8 days in the variety Kurtovska kapia 1. The treatment with a voltage of 10 kV, duration of seed exposure 20 s and time for seed stay 12 days is the most suitable for the varieties Sofiyska kapia and Kapia UV.

INTRODUCTION

Increasing yields of agricultural crops is a major task in the application of new technologies in modern crop production. Growing of crops by conventional methods, through the application of fertilizers and pesticides, is a burden on the environment, so in the last decade scientists have been looking for innovative solutions and methods for increasing agricultural production. Application of the physical methods in the plant-growing through the use of lasers (Hernández et al., 2006), ultraviolet rays (Tsygvintsev et al., 2015), electromagnetic fields (Carbonell et al., 2000; Domínguez et al., 2010) and electricity (Moon and Chung, 2000) aims to stimulate seed germination (Aladjadjiyan, 2012) and the resistance to external environmental factors (Galland and Pazur, 2005). These methods are considered harmless to the environment. They modify the course of some physiological and biochemical processes that take place in the seeds, increase their vitality and provide for better development of plants at later stages (Garcia et al., 2002).
       
It was established that in pre-treatment with electromagnetic fields at optimal doses of a particular plant species, the seed sowing properties could be improved, the protein synthesis could be activated, pathogenic microflora suppressand it would be possible to obtain higher yields (Podlesny et al., 2005; Samy, 1998; Soltani et al., 2006). Studies on pre-sowing electromagnetic treatment of seeds have been conducted in wheat (Martinez et al., 2002; Penuelas et al., 2004; Palov et al., 2008), peas (Jamil and Ahmad, 2012), maize (Flórez et al., 2007, Palov et al. 2008) industrial crops (Spendier et al., 2018; Stoilova et al., 2011), vegetable crops such as pepper (Nimmi and Madhu, 2009; Ahamed et al., 2013; Martínez et al., 2014), ; head cabbage (Antonova et al., 2013; Sirakov et al., 2013), tomato (Ganeva et al., 2013; Sirakov et al., 2016).
       
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-sowing electromagnetic processing and the length of seed stay on sowing qualities and morphological features of Bulgarian pepper varieties, kapia type.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experimental work was performed during the period 2015-2018 at the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The subject of the study was the sowing qualities and morphological characters of three Bulgarian of pepper, a kapia type, intended for average early field production - Kurtovska kapia 1, Sofiyska kapia and Kapia UV. The research was carried out jointly with the Department of Power Supply and Electrical Equipment of the Ruse University, Ruse. An electromagnetic field of  alternating corona discharge between the blade-plane electrodes was used for pre-sowing seed treatment of the three pepper varieties, The controllable factors of influence are: the voltage U (kV) between the treatment electrodes, the duration of the impact t (s) and the time of the seeds stay after treatment until sowing T (days). The experiment included 15 treatments in which the control factors varied at 3 levels (Table 1), i. a complete factor experiment of B3 type was conducted (Mitkov and Kardashevski, 1977).

Table 1: Matrix of planning experiment.


       
Fifteen treatments of processing in 3 replications were set in Petri dishes (100 seeds/replication) in laboratory conditions. The seeds were placed in a thermostat at 25°C and 95% humidity of the medium. The control is untreated seeds from the three varieties. Ten germinated seeds that have been randomized taken from each replication of the treatment were analyzed.
       
The following seed characteristics were studied: germinating energy - G.E. (%) and germination - G. (%) and the morphological features: root length  r (mm), hypocotyl   h (mm) and cotyledon   c (mm).
       
The indicators were recorded on the 6th and 14th day according to the ISTA methodology (2004), with the measurement performed with a caliper-gauge (up to 0.01 mm accuracy). The results were statistically processed by analysis of variance (Duncan, 1955; Lidanski, 1988) and they are expressed as a percentage of the control (% / K).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

According the data analysis of the sowing characters of the seeds form Kurtovska kapia 1, it was found that the pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments had a positive effect on the germinated energy and germination of the seeds in all the studied treatments, with the exception of the 6th  treatment for germinating energy and the 5th treatment for germination as in both treatment the seed stay have been 4 days (Table 2.1). Positive effects were reported in all variants with stay of processing of T = 8 and T = 12 days. For a stay of T = 8 days, the germination energy was improved from 16.04% in the 9th treatment to 33.02% for the 10th treatment, while for the germination the deviation from the control was with lower levels - from 0.79 - 14.62%. The highest values for the germination energy were reported in treatment 10 with U = 6 kV, time t = 20 s, stay of T = 8 days (33.02% / K), followed by treatment 12 with U = 10 kV, time t = 5 s, a stay of T = 8 days (28.77% / K) as they were proven to be different from the control. In germination the treatment 10 is only with proven higher values compared to the control, as the deviation is 14.62%. Depressive effect on the germination energy after treatment but with unproven differences is recorded in treatment 6 with U = 6 kV time t = 35 s with a stay before sowing time of T = 4 days (2.36% / K) and on germination - in treatment 5 with U = 14 kV, time t = 35 s at T = 4 days with a minimal difference from the control of 0.79% / K.

Table 2.1: Sowing qualities of the germinated of Kurtovska kapia 1 variety.

       

The studied variants of electromagnetic seed treatments have unproven differences from the control by the length of the embryonic root, as a small stimulating effect was established in seven of them only (Table 2.2). Similar results were reported for the length of the hypocotyl, as lower values were reported in treatment 5 only. The greatest influence on the morphological parameters of the germinated seeds was registered in treatment 10 with voltage U = 6 kV, time t = 20 s and T = 8 days, where the root and hypocotyl growth were respectively 11.36% and 20.42% higher than the control. A positive effect on the length of the cotyledons cot was found in variant 11 with U = 10 kV, time t = 35 s and T = 8 days, as only this variant having proven differences towards the control. A suppressing, but unproven, effect on root lengths  r = 9.65% / K had a stay of the seeds before sowing T = 12 days in treatment 1 with U = 14 kV, time t = 35 s; at hypocotyl length  h = 34.82% / K was reported in treatment 5 at T = 4 days with U = 14 kV, time t = 35 s; in cotyledon  c the differences are insignificant.

Table 2.2: Morphological characteristics of the germinated of Kurtovska kapia 1 variety.


 
The results of the studied sowing properties of the seeds from the Sofiyska kapia variety are given in Table 3.1. According to the analysis of these studies, this variety is characterized by a large variation in the treatments due to pre-sowing treatments, but differences with respect to the control were demonstrated in treatment 4 for germinating energy, as a decrease is with 40.86% compared to the control. The germination energy and seed germination have improved in the three stays of the seeds T = 4, 8 and 12 days after treatment with U = 10 kV, time t = 20 s, from 30.11 to 32.26% / K and 5.79-11.57% / K, respectively. At the same time, a negative effect on germination energy was also observed in the group of treatments at T = 12 days as it is strongly expressed in treatment 4 with U = 6 kV, time t = 5 s - 45.81% / K. The results in the germination index are different. The analysis shows that in 47% of the treatments the pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments in the corona discharge field have a negative effect despite the fact that the differences with the control are proved. The lowest readings were recorded in treatment 4 with U = 6 kV, time t = 5 s and seed stay before sowing T = 12 days. This confirms the data from laboratory tests performed on tomatoes (Ganeva et al., 2013) and cabbage (Antonova et al., 2013; Sirakov et al., 2013) with the same controllable factors.

Table 3.1: Sowing qualities of the germinated of Sofiyska kapia variety.


       
The results of the influence of the controllable factors on the morphological features, on the root lengths, hypocotyls and cotyledons are shown in Table 3.2. The analysis of the data shows that for the Sofiyska kapia variety, the treatments had a negative effect on the observed root  r parameter, the most strongly expressed in all treatments during the stay of the seeds until sowing T = 4 days. The highest results for the hypocotyl length   h, were reported in variant 13 with U = 10 kV, time t = 20 s and T = 12 days of 41.52% / K. At the cotyledon length    c, the variation of values is small and it reaches to 5.55% / K.

Table 3.2: Morphological characteristics of the germinated of Sofiyska kapia variety.


       
The results of pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments of seeds of the Kapia UV variety for their sowing properties are given in Table 3.1. The analysis of the data shows that this type of treatments does not satisfactorily affect the germination energy and germination of the studied variety. The values of germination energy reach 25.71% / K for treatment 15 with U = 10 kV, time t = 20 s and T = 8 days, while for half of the treatments in the field of alternating corona discharge the effect is suppressing. The variation in germination values is weak, only in treatment 4 with U = 6 kV, time t = 5 s and T = 12 days it reaches 8.46% / K. Kuzmanov et al., (2010), Sirakov, (2010) have not established a regularity in the results obtained after electromagnetic processing of seeds of cucumber variety “Gergana” and barley variety “Obzor”, which correlates with the data obtained in pepper variety.
 
The values of the morphological characters of the germinated seeds are close to the control. Stimulating effect was registered in the hypocotyls length  h almost in all treatments, compared to the root length   r and cotyledons  c.  As a result of the comparison of data in Table 4.2 and Table 3.2 was established that the observed parameters in the seeds of the “Kapia UV” variety are similar to the results obtained in the “Sofiyska kapia” variety. The highest responses as a result of electromagnetic processing were analyzed in treatment 13 with U = 10 kV, time t = 20 s and T=12. Spendier et al., (2018) establish that, under the influence of magnetic fields, the percentage of germination and morphological characters of hemp that this is the potential of culture. Govindaraj et al., 2017) study the effect of actual methods for pre-sowing seed treatment on the qualitative and quantitative characters in different types of crops. At the same time, Abdiazar N. et al., (2019) study the effect of the magnetic field on weed vegetation (Amaranthus retroflexus) and the suppress of weed growth under the influence of various magnetic field exposures. Nair R. M. et al., (2018) investigated the effect of magnetic treatments on the chemical composition of different lines of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) and Kakhki et al., (2018) on morphological characteristics and yield in sesame.

Table 4.1: Sowing qualities of the germinated of Kapia UV variety.



Table 4.2: Morphological characteristics of the germinated of Kapia UV variety.



Table 5: Three-way analysis of variance.


       
The data of the studied sowing properties of the seeds for the three varieties were analyzed by three-way analyze of variance (Table 5). The analyze make an evaluation of the interaction of factors - variety (A), voltage (B) and stay of seeds before sowing (C).
       
As a result of the performed three-factor analysis of variance for germination energy, statistical differences were found between the studied varieties, voltage and stay of seeds before sowing, as well as the interaction A × C. The greatest influence was established in the germinating energy of the variety (16.97%), followed by voltage (8.30%) and stay of the seeds before sowing (7.14%) and at lowest effect was observed in the interaction between factors variety A and stay of the seeds before sowing C (5.64%), i.e. the seeds from the different varieties react differently to electromagnetic treatments at the set values of controllable factors.
       
From the results of the analysis of variance for the character “germination” was established that only the “variety” factor and the interaction between “variety” and “voltage” were found significant. Variety (25.04%) appears to be the strongest source of variation, followed by the interaction between factors × variety (10.70%). The other factors and interactions do not show statistically differences.
       
The general analyze of the data in Table 5 show that after the pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments of the seeds with controllable impact factors, a variety peculiarity on the studied parameters exist. The three-factor analysis of variance, in the “germination energy” and “germination” indices, proves that the influence of the variety is a determining factor in the pre-sowing electromagnetic treatment in the corona discharge field in the seeds of the studied pepper varieties.
       
Based on the studies performed, it can be assumed that pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments with selected controllable values on seeds of the pepper varieties studied can be applied as follows:
- “Kurtovska kapia 1” variety voltage U = 6 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay before sowing T = 8 days (treatment 10).
- “Sofiyska kapia” and “Kapia UV” varieties, U = 10 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay before sowing T = 12 days (treatment 13).

CONCLUSION

A positive influence of pre-sowing electromagnetic treatments in the field of alternating corona discharge was established on the sowing properties and morphological characters of pepper seeds when the stay before the sowing has been 4, 8 and 12 days.             
       
A variety peculiarity on the studied parameters of the crop was registered.
       
The greatest effect on the sowing properties – “germinating energy” and “germination” of seeds is established in treatment 10 with voltage U = 6 kV, duration of t = 20 s and stay of seeds before sowing T = 8 days for variety “Kurtovska kapia 1”. A positive effect in variety “Sofiyska kapia” is registered in treatment 14 with voltage U = 10 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay of seeds before sowing T = 4 days. The best results for the variety “Kapia UV” are obtained in treatment 13 with voltage U = 10 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay of seeds before sowing T = 12 days.
               
The greatest effect on the morphological characters of the seeds is recorded at a stay before sowing of T = 8 days in the variety “Kurtovska kapia 1”. The most appropriate values of the controllable factors are voltage U = 6 and 10 kV, processing time t = 20 and 35 s for the treatments 10, 11. For variety “Sofiyska kapia” - treatment 13 with voltage U = 10 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay of seeds before sowing T = 12 days. The most important for stimulating the growth and development of sprouted seedlings in laboratory conditions for the variety “Kapia UV” is treatment 13 with voltage U = 10 kV, processing time t = 20 s and stay before sowing T = 12 days.

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