Soil Allelotoxicity and Creation of Sorption-Stimulating Preparation to Accelerate Plant Development from Spring Wheat Seeds at Early Stages

Abstract

Sorption-stimulating preparation for pre-sowing seed treatment, containing calcium bentonite, potassium humate, brewer’s yeast autolysate, gibberellin and polyethylene glycol has been created. It stimulates efficiently plant development from spring wheat seeds at early stages on different soils. It has been shown that high water hardness has no negative impact on the effect of stimulant. The stimulant solution should be prepared 4–6 hours prior to its application and can be stored for more than a week without losing its stimulating properties. Seeds treated by the stimulant solution can be stored more than two months without losing the results of treatment; the pre-sowing seed treatment with the stimulant solution in combination with biological and chemical fungicides does not decrease the stimulant efficiency. It has been also found that drying the soil samples to air-dry condition increases markedly the soil allelotoxicity and this phenomenon may be related to the structural transition of soil gels in the matrix, and greater availability of allelotoxins for plants. These substances are fixed on hydrophobic ingredients of particles that form the soil gels.