Abstract

Application of magnetically treated water to seedlings production has shown beneficial results in several crops. The objective of study was to evaluate the effect of magnetically treated water on germination, growth and development of eggplant seedlings. Three experiments were conducted and the water was treated with 1000 G magnetic field during 24 h. In the first experiment, the treatments tested were applications of magnetically treated water and magnetically untreated water in trays filled with soil and commercial substrate. In the second experiment, the same water treatments were applied, but the trays were filled only with commercial substrate. In the third experiment, two factors were tested, the water treatments (magnetically treated water and untreated water) and two water replacement frequencies (daily and every two days), and the plastic cups were filled with only commercial substrate. In the first experiment, the magnetic treatment of the irrigation water contributed with the growth of the seedlings. However, in the second and third experiments that were conducted on substrate, there was growth reduction of eggplant seedlings with application of magnetically treated water. There were more occurrences decreasing than increasing of substrate water evaporation with the magnetically treated water. There were no significant differences for the seedling growth under different irrigation frequencies.

Key words: Germination, magnetism, seeds, Solanum melongena L.