Pre-sowing physical methods of impact on plant seeds (Review)

This review is devoted to analysis and discussion of various physical effects on seeds, prior to sowing, to improve plant growth and development. It has been indicated that along with traditional methods of seed treatment, in recent years, various physical methods of seed preparation before sowing have been widely used to improve the growth and development of plants. Various physical methods of exposure to seeds have been considered, such as methods of ionizing radiation in small doses, sound, shock wave and heat treatment, exposure to electric and magnetic fields, laser, UV and IR irradiation, exposure to thermal neutron fluxes. As a result of generalization and analysis of literature data, it has been shown that treatment of seeds before sowing with various physical influences stimulates their vital activity, which ultimately leads to obtaining high yields of agricultural crops. It has been found that various physical effects on seeds lead to earlier sprout of plant seeds. The review emphasizes that thanks to nuclear reactors, not only γ-radiation, but also neutron fluxes of various energies are widely used, and modern accelerators give various beams, consisting of electrons, protons, fragments of nuclei of heavy atoms, π-mesons and many other particles which are perspective methods of pre-sowing preparation of agricultural seeds. Thus, the analysis of data shows that various physical effects on seeds at certain energy flows have a stimulating effect on their sowing qualities. (author)