Photoregulation of agricultural plant growth and development by XeCl-excilamp

Abstract

Now, agriculture strives for advanced technologies that would speed up the seed germination, reduce the plant disease incidence, and enhance the crop yield. In this connection, more and more studies address ultraviolet irradiation of seeds and plants as a way to increase their sowing quality. In this paper, XeCl-excilamp (λ~ 300-320 nm) ‒ as a simulator of solar short-wave radiation ‒ is used in the quality of source of ultraviolet radiation. A new data on morphometric and morphological indicators of development of a number of economically valuable crops (parsley, cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini) exposed to XeCl-excilamp are presented. In particular, it is shown that the ultraviolet treatment increases the number of zucchini fruits ("Tsukesha" sort) by an average of 40%, compared to untreated control samples and increases the area of the assimilating surface of leafs (in the first week after germination and further in a month and two months) by an average of one and a half times. Compared with the control 90-second treatment of seeds zucchini led to a higher content of vitamin C in fruits and more than a twofold reduction of nitrate to 64±7 mg/kg. Similar results were obtained for the pumpkins. First processing radiation of XeCl-excilamp were subjected parsley seeds. Found processing conditions in which you can increase the yield by an average of 20%. The obtained indicators allow us to draw a conclusion about the economic feasibility of XeCl-excilamp seeds illumination and confirm our conclusions about the prospects of such a procedure for pre-sowing plant seeds.