Fig. 10

Monitoring of seed germination of plasma-treated pea seeds at the optimized exposure times during 6 months of storage. Seed germination of (a) poor germinating (50% germ.) and (b) well germinating (90% germ.) pea seeds 24 h after imbibition. Variants: REF (C) – nontreated reference seeds stored at 4 °C; DCSBD 15/30s, 0w (C) to 5w (C) – seeds treated with DCSBD plasma for 15/30 s and stored for 0 to 5 weeks at 4 °C; DCSBD 15/30s, 6 m (C) – plasma-treated seeds (15/30s) stored for 6 months at 4 °C; DCSBD 15/30s, 6 m (RT) – plasma-treated seeds (15/30s) stored for 6 months at room temperature; REF, 6 m (RT) – nontreated reference seeds stored for 6 months at room temperature. Bars represent mean values from five independent experiments (each with 50 seeds per variant, n = 250) ± standard deviation (SD). Different letters indicate statistically significant differences at P < 0.05 (ANOVA, LSD test).