SPRING BARLEY YIELD AFTER PRESOWING SEED TREATMENT WITH METAL NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Abstract—To meet the growing demand for food, it is necessary to develop new approaches in presowing seed treatment, and modern nanotechnologies are perspective trend. The paper presents the results of studying how presowing treatment of spring barley with metal nanoparticles (NPs) introduced into the polymer film coating affects plant growth and development, as well as productivity, under laboratory and field tests. Metal NPs used in the work had the following characteristics: Fe NPs: size 56.0 ± 0.9 nm, phase composition: Fe^o, 27.9 ± 2.1%; Fe₂O₃, 72.1 ± 3.6%; Zn NPs: size 104.0 ± 3.7 nm, phase composition: Zn^o, 100%; Cu NPs: size 65.0 ± 1.2 nm, phase composition: Cu^o, 100%. The polymer film on the grain surface is formed from a mixture of Na-carboxymethyl cellulose and polyethylene glycol-400 polymers. Presowing treatment of barley seeds with metal NPs as components of the polymer coating help to increase the germination rate and sprout ability, the green mass and root mass of plants. In production tests, presowing treatment of seeds with metal NPs in the seed cover film led to 4.1% increase in grain yield and 2.2% decrease in moisture content in comparison with the control.