Effect of magnetic irrigation on germination and early growth characteristics of maize (Zea mays)

In this paper, the effect of applying field magnetic crossing water for irrigating maize seeds (cv. Maxima) in the germination and establishment tests was studied. For this purpose, two separate experiments were carried out in faculty of agriculture, university of Zanjan (Iran), in 2011. The germination test was done for 10 days and the establishment for 20 days. Both experiments were done as factorial test in completely randomized design with 4 replications. The experiment factors were type of water including distilled water and well water and crossing and no crossing through the magnetic field. To irrigate treatments, it was used distilled and well water in usual state and after crossing from magnetic field with rate=0.1 Tesla. Length and dry mass of shoot, length and dry mass of root, percentage and rate of germination were measured and calculated in the germination and establishment tests. On the results, using magnetic water, in the germination test, increased shoot length, dry mass of shoot, dry mass of root, percentage and rate of seed germinations 17.95, 25.9, 22.22, 21.23 and 21.8 percent, respectively, compared with control treatments. Also, the establishment test results showed, irrigating treatments by using magnetized water had increasing effect on initial growth characteristic of plants, so that it increased plant shoot length, dry mass of shoot, dry mass of root and germination rate, respectively, 14.65, 20.87, 33.12 and 12.2 percent compared with control treatments. Consideringthat no material is added in irrigation water when crossing magnetic field, so magnetizing of irrigation water is a safe and environmental technology