Influence of Electrostatic Fields on Seed Germination

RECENT investigations have stimulated wider interest in the possible biological significance of naturally occurring electric fields and related phenomena. Murr1–3 has shown that high intensity electric fields appear to inhibit development in grass seedlings; he points out, however, that earlier workers, notably Jorgensen and Priestley4, and Shibusawa and Shibata5, observed increases in plant growth under electric field conditions, although the frequent occurrence of contradictory results in much of the early work on this subject has been emphasized by Lund6. The physiological effects of air ionization have been studied by a number of workers7. Krueger et al.8 report that exposure to positively or negatively ionized air produced more rapid germination in Avena sativa seeds with subsequent increases in growth and dry weight; slight increases in growth were also noted with seedlings placed in positive or negative electric fields of 955 V over 30 cm; in these experiments, however, the seed containers were grounded to prevent the accumulation of surface charge. The present communication directs attention to an apparent dependence on polarity of the response of germinating seeds to induced electrostatic charges.