Effect of “Hardening” Radish Seeds

Abstract

SUBJECTING seeds to one or more cycles of wetting and drying before sowing, in the process called “hardening”, is said to affect the subsequent growth of plants in adverse environmental conditions. Various Russian workers, cited by May et al.¹, have found that such treatment increases the resistance of plants to drought, heat and frost, but others² have failed to confirm this. We have therefore grown radish plants from hardened and unhardened seeds, in wet and dry soil conditions at three levels of soil fertility, to find out whether hardening alters yields in different circumstances.