Enhancement of the yield of rape seeds by plasma discharge and biological protection: Field experiments

The recent rapid progress in development of new technologies offers new procedures, which are environmental-friendly. One of such area are modern seed-protective methods based on treatment of seeds by plasma discharges with consequent settling of the surface by protective fungi. These biotechnological approaches represent progressive practices, which may in the future reduce the amount of chemical compounds used during chemical treatment of seed. In the past decade we performed extensive laboratory research in order to establish the plasma processing parameters. In past three years the research continued by field experiments, which aimed to assess the possibility to use such approaches in real conditions. We stated that plasma treatment of seeds in combination with consecutive microbial protective coatings of grains enhances biological value of the rapeseed, when process parameters are appropriately selected. Plasma treated seeds have higher water absorbability that contributes to better germination and early growth. The plants are more robust, they have stronger root system, quicker development and maturing. And the main benefit of such approaches is, that the presented dual treatment technique results in higher yields in field experiments.