Design and Evaluation of an Applicator for Magnetopriming Treatments

Abstract

Seed priming is a physiological seed enhancement method for overcoming poor and erratic seed germination in many crop and flowering plants. Magnetopriming is a pre-sowing seed treatment with magnetic field that appears as a promising method to improve seed performances. This paper presents a cost-efficient design and optimization of an exposure system for magnetopriming treatments. The proposed static magnetic field applicator is modelled and designed with the aid of commercial software. The prototype is realized and tested based on the best set of geometry parameters for optimum performance, in terms of strength and high homogeneity of the magnetic flux density in the Region of Interest. Both analytical and measurement results are found to be in good agreement with the simulated results. The system is low cost, environmentally friendly and easy to operate. It allows seed treatments at different strengths with high homogeneity within the samples. In this way, the treatments can be carried out following good practice requirements strongly recommended for a high quality bioelectromagnetic research to assure reliability and reproducibility of the experiments.