Effects of magnetic treatment of different qualities of irrigation water on plant growth

Abstract

This study aims at evaluating the effects of magnetic treatment of different qualities of irrigation water on growth of sunflower plant. Three different levels of water salinity were used to irrigate this plant. The electrical conductivity of these three different salinity irrigation were 0.7, 4, and 8 dS/m. The lower limit of the electrical conductivity represents the salinity of tap water. A magnetic treatment device was used to treat the irrigation water with two intensities of 1000 and 3000 Gauss. Replicated pot experiment sets were conducted in a field conditions environment. These experiments include irrigation sun flower plant with magnetically treated and untreated irrigation water. The experiments continued for 20 days after seeding. In general, the results showed that the low limit of EC of the used untreated irrigation water is the best for the plant growth in all its life stages among other used irrigation water. The growth of the sunflower is affected negatively by the salinity of the untreated irrigation water. Exposing the used irrigation water to a magnetic field has valuable effects on the sunflower growth. These effects are in different levels that depend on the salinity of used irrigation water. For the irrigation water of the three EC values of 0.7, 4, and 8 dS/m, the achieved maximum increase in germination was 7.2%, 57.3%, and 150.4%, the root depth increased by 14.3%, 10.2%, 16%, the stem height was increased by 29.6%%, 60%%, and 28%%, respectively, when compared to the sunflower plant irrigated by untreated water. Moreover, the maximum increases in the wet weight of the green part of the plant were 79.7%, 53.5%, and 82.7%, and that for the wet weight of the root part were 79.4%, 46%, and 3.8% for the three types of water, respectively. Finally, the overall conclusion that was achieved is that it is possible to use a magnetic field to treat salty water that can improve sunflower growth.