Effect of electrostatic field on seed germination and seedling growth of Sorbus pohuashanesis

A study was conducted to determine the effects of electrostatic field (ESF) treatment on seed germination and seedling growth of Sorbus pohuashanesis. The experiments were arranged by uniform design computed by the Data Processing System (DPS), including three levels of seeds soaking time, four levels of ESF intensity and four levels of ESF treatment time, with 12 treatments. Ten seeds were used in each treatment with three replicates. Seed vigor, seed germinating ability, emergence rate of seedling, survival rate of seedling, and seedling height and diameter, as well as the change in activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), soluble protein contents, total chlorophyll contents, soluble total sugar contents in leaves of S. pohuashanensis seedlings were measured after ESF treatments. The experiment results show that ESF treatment could improve the water absorption ability of dry seeds of S. pohuashanensis, resulting in fast germination at room temperature under light conditions. Combined treatment of ESF with cold stratification could increase seed germination percentage significantly (to 42.20%), promote seedling height growth, affect leaf SOD activity, and could raise contents of total chlorophyll, soluble protein, and total soluble sugar in leaves. Seed soaking time had a significant effect on seed relative electroconductivity, seed germination under light, SOD activity, soluble protein content and total soluble sugar content of seedling leaves. ESF intensity exerted a moderate effect on these indexes. ESF treatment time only had significant effect on total chlorophyll contents, no evident effect on other indexes. © 2011 Northeast Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.