Cathodic Water Enhances Seedling Emergence and Growth of Controlled Deteriorated Orthodox Seeds.

All orthodox seeds eventually deteriorate during storage, a well-known problem in seed banking. Here we used a greenhouse study to test if priming deteriorated seeds with cathodic water can improve the emergence and subsequent seedling growth of three South African tree species, , and Other priming solutions investigated were calcium magnesium (CaMg) solution and deionized water. In the present study, seeds were subjected to an artificial deterioration by increasing their water content to 14% and keeping them at 40 °C and 100% RH until they had lost 50% of their germination under laboratory conditions.

Influence of Cathodic Water Invigoration on the Emergence and Subsequent Growth of Controlled Deteriorated Pea and Pumpkin Seeds.

The quality of seeds in gene banks gradually deteriorates during long-term storage, which is probably, at least in part, a result of the progressive development of oxidative stress. Here, we report a greenhouse study that was carried out to test whether a novel approach of seed invigoration using priming with cathodic water (cathodic portion of an electrolysed calcium magnesium solution) could improve seedling emergence and growth in two deteriorated crop seeds. Fresh seeds of and were subjected to controlled deterioration to 50% viability at 14% seed moisture content (fresh weight basis), 40 °C and 100% relative humidity.

Phyotoxicity of diesel soil contamination on the germination of Lactuca sativa and Ipomoea batatas.

Phytotoxic effect of diesel contaminated soil on germination rate of Lactuca sativa and Ipomoea batatas, at two concentrations ranges (0-6ml and 0-30ml), were investigated and compared. Diesel soil contamination was simulated and soil samples were taken from contaminated soil at 1, 5,10, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 days should be after planting. The result showed that in both plant species, diesel inhibited germination in a concentration dependent manner, Also, the influence of diesel contamination diminished with increased time duration; suggesting possible reduction in diesel toxicity over time.

Influence of diesel contamination in soil on growth and dry matter partitioning of Lactuca sativa and Ipomoea batatas.

Phytotoxic effect of diesel contaminated soil was investigated on growth and dry matter partitioning in Lactuca sativa and Ipomoea batatas in greenhouse pot experiment at two concentration range (0-30 ml and 0-6 ml diesel kg(-1) soil) for 14 weeks. The results indicated thatwhole plant biomass, stem length, root length, number of leaves and leaf chlorophyll in two plants were negatively correlated with increasing diesel concentrations. The critical concentration of diesel associated with 10% decrease in plant growth was 0.