Enhancement of Maize (Zea mays var: GS-2) Plant Growth and Yield: Seed Treatment with Non-thermal Plasma using Different Gases

Kundan Viliya^1*, Uttam Sharma¹, Manisha Thakur², Kadur Narayan Guruprasad², Jayshree Sharma³, Ramkrishna Rane⁴_, Amulya Sanyasi⁵ and Joydeep Ghosh⁵

¹Department of Physics, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Science, SVVV Indore, India.

²Department of Life Science, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Science, SVVV Indore, India.

³Department of Physics, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Management, DAVV, Indore, India.

⁴Facilitation Centre for Industrial Plasma Technologies, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India.

⁵Aditya-Upgrade Tokamak Operations Division, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India.

Corresponding Author E-mail:viliyakundan@gmail.com

Abstract:

Impact of pre-sowing treatment of maize (Zea mays Var: GS-2) seeds with non-thermal glow discharge plasma on the growth and yield of field grown plants has been investigated. Maize seeds were treated with non-thermal glow discharge plasma produced from five different gases Nitrogen (N₂), Helium (He), Argon (Ar), Hydrogen (H₂) and Oxygen (O₂) before sowing the seeds in the field. Seeds were exposed to 30 W for 240 seconds to glow discharge plasma produced in a cylindrical stainless steel vacuum chamber utilizing an automatic matching network and a 13.56 MHz with the capacity up to 600W RF power source are used. Plasma treated seeds were grown in the field and growth measurements were made at 30, 60 and 90 days after sowing. Pre- sowing treatment with glow discharge plasma enhanced plant height, leaf length and plant fresh weight at all the stages of growth. O₂ and N₂ plasma treated seeds were more effective than He, H₂ and Ar in enhancing the growth and biomass of the plants. The yield parameters are cob length 21% in O₂ and 19% in N₂, cob weight 36% in O₂ and 34% in N₂, and 100 seeds weight 39% in O₂ and 36% in N₂ plasma were significantly enhanced. It is concluded that O₂ and N₂ plasma Pre-sowing treatment can significantly enhance the biomass and yield of maize plants with O₂ slightly higher. Analyzing the characterization with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) of maize seeds. SEM revealed considerable alterations for O₂, N₂, Ar, and He but no change for H₂ plasma treatment. The findings demonstrate that the surface of the starch caryopsis has been altered, exposing an oxygen and nitrogen plasma that has resulted in huge channels and water holes. The OES identified the presence of OH, NO, O, and N₂ radicals generated during oxygen and nitrogen plasma treatment, which is contributing to the best result.

Keywords:

Glow discharge plasma; Growth; Maize; OES; SEM; Yield

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