Influência do tratamento a plasma na germinação e crescimento de sementes de soja

Abstract

Soybean is an oilseed with a fundamental role in the Brazilian and world economy, acting as a raw material for food, oils and animal feed. The promotion of increased productivity in grain cultivation is carried out by the development and application of methodologies involved in the entire production chain. Conventional methods of increasing productivity are often harmful to the environment. To develop an alternative to conventional media, with a sustainable vision, this work seeks to study the influence of plasma treatment on germination and growth of soybean seeds. With this objective, the parameters of comparison taken are the germination test, root and shoot length of seedlings and water. Soybean seeds were plasma treated in an inductively coupled reactor in an atmosphere of atmospheric air, nitrogen and oxygen with treatment times of 15, 60 and 120 seconds. Better germination, root growth and water absorption performances were obtained for the 15 second treatment time for all gases. For this time, the gas that achieved the best results was atmospheric air followed by oxygen and finally nitrogen. In order to compare the results of the tests with the change in the surface of the seeds, after the treatments they were analyzed with an optical microscope at 16 and 32 times zoom. Cracks and more intense surface marks were observed for the treatments of 60 and 120 seconds, being responsible for the worse performance in relation to the time of 15 seconds.