Effect of cold plasma on seed quality in soybean (Glycine max L.Merril)

Abstract

Soybean is a major oilseed crop rich in oil and protein content which is a part of diet in many countries. Soybeanseeds have thin and fragile testa, hence susceptible to mechanical damage resulting in poor and non-uniform germinationwhich subsequently leads to poor field establishment and yield reduction. A laboratory experiment was carried out in theDepartment of Seed Science and Technology and Department of Biotechnology, University of Agricultural Sciences,Dharwad during 2021-22. The experiment was laid out under CRD comprising eight treatments in four replicates, wheremedium vigour soybean seeds of 68 per cent initial germination were subjected to assess the effect of cold plasmatreatments (0, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19 sec) on seed quality parameters at 200 KHz frequency, 980 watt power by usingnitrogen gas at Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, (IIST) Thiruvananthapuram, Results revealed that theeffect of cold plasma on seed quality parameters of soybean varied with different durations. Enhancement in seed germinationand vigour index was observed at 3 seconds (72.00%) and 5 seconds (70.00%) which exposure recorded 5.88 per cent and~3 per cent higher germination over control. Further higher duration of treatment (10 to 19 seconds) deteriorated or hadsignificantly negative impact on seed germination, seedling vigour which was evident through decrease in shoot length, rootlength, seedling dry weight, total dehydrogenase enzyme activity correspondingly. The present study showed that coldplasma had an active effect on seed quality parameters at lower dose. Three seconds (T2) cold plasma noticed higheststimulatory effect among the different treatments and next best was five seconds (T3)