Electroculture

[pyroglycerine]

Hi,

 

I'm quite interested in plant biology and I do some gardening in my spare time.

I have been reading online about electroculture and magnetoculture - the application of electricity and magnetism respectively, to stimulate growth in plants.

Has there ever been any official research done on this? Have electricity and magnetism been scientifically proven to have a positive effect on plant growth?

Does electromagnetic radiation also have any affect of plant growth?

 

Thanks,

 

pyroglycerine

[John Cuthber]

Do you know that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation?

[pyroglycerine]

Do you know that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation?

 

.....Yes. Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant artificial electromagnetic radiation in such forms as infrared, microwaves, radiowaves, x-rays, and gamma rays

[chadn737]

 

.....Yes. Sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant artificial electromagnetic radiation in such forms as infrared, microwaves, radiowaves, x-rays, and gamma rays

 

Some of those are mutagenic.

[Acme]

Hi,

 

I'm quite interested in plant biology and I do some gardening in my spare time.

I have been reading online about electroculture and magnetoculture - the application of electricity and magnetism respectively, to stimulate growth in plants.

Has there ever been any official research done on this? Have electricity and magnetism been scientifically proven to have a positive effect on plant growth?

...

Thanks,

 

pyroglycerine

Please give some links to what you are reading. I have never seen any writing on electroculture and magnetoculture that wasn't simply anecdotal or an outright pseudoscientific con to sell useless 'equipment'.

[pyroglycerine]

Please give some links to what you are reading. I have never seen any writing on electroculture and magnetoculture that wasn't simply anecdotal or an outright pseudoscientific con to sell useless 'equipment'.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume2issue1/kinahan/ ----This seems like a fairly reliable source

 

http://electricfertilizer.com/category/electroculture/ ----- This one, not so sure..

[Acme]

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume2issue1/kinahan/ ----This seems like a fairly reliable source

 

http://electricfertilizer.com/category/electroculture/ ----- This one, not so sure..

Sweet; I'll check them out.

So I have read both links completely. The first deals with aerial electrodes in the late 19th & early 20th century for which there appears to have been contradictory and inconclusive results. Little is given on specifics of the experimentation and the link mostly deals with the historical context of the experiments.

 

The second deals with electrodes in the ground and is primarily the efforts of amateurs using poorly -if at all- controlled circumstances. They do refer to a Japanese study on electrifying seedlings but that work is not freely available.

 

All-in-all these articles seem to affirm my initial impression that there is nothing of substance to electro-culture. Although I saw no mention of magneto-culture I suspect it's of the same ilk.

[David Wechsler]

As the founder of link removed, I'd like to say that there is actually a ton of freely available, scientifically reputable information on the subject - you'll just need to look around for it. The body of work in this space is growing, and to really learn about it you will need to take a little dive into the world of plant electrophysiology to learn about the search terms to find what you're looking for.

 

To start, I would point you to look at the collection of papers in the book edited by Volkov - I can't find my link so easily right now, but if you look up "plant electrophysiology" in google books, you'll find some free excerpts that will be of interest.

 

A reader of my newsletter just sent me the following link that describes some research out of Korea where scientists were stimulating lettuce & hot pepper plants with 2-10 volts and achieving gains in growth and pepper size. What's especially interesting to me is their use of DNA testing to look for genetic changes (presumably gene expression) in the soil & root bacterial populations as the plant grows, across both electrified and control groups: http://file.scirp.org/Html/2-3000235_19031.htm

 

While the formatting isn't that great, there were some experiments done by the Missouri Botanical Gardens in 1918 that show promising results from DC electrification: http://wwww.archive.org/stream/mobot31753002460860/mobot31753002460860_djvu.txt

 

If you were interested in seeing how AC fields are beneficial to tomato seedlings, you can check out this paper: http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-3591e99e-32b2-4534-9733-fa6ab7bb9ab6/c/Patwardhan-403-413.pdf

 

Regarding magnetic stimulation, here's a paper I found but haven't read yet that you would find interesting (my focus for the time being is DC & pulsed DC forms of stimulation): http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=399_15

 

Within my close circles, I and my fellow experimenters have personally experienced accelerated and increased growth of tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, sunflowers, squash, and corn.

 

 

I recommend starting off by doing some research - try to go a little bit deeper before dismissing what's possible. I believe that if you search around for awhile you'll come across people finding success with audio signals, ultrasonics, high voltage electric fields, and more. Best of luck!

Edited April 16, 2014 by hypervalent_iodine
advertising link removed

[Acme]

As the founder of link removed, I'd like to say that there is actually a ton of freely available, scientifically reputable information on the subject - you'll just need to look around for it. The body of work in this space is growing, and to really learn about it you will need to take a little dive into the world of plant electrophysiology to learn about the search terms to find what you're looking for.

I remain unconvinced following a few big dives.

 

To start, I would point you to look at the collection of papers in the book edited by Volkov - I can't find my link so easily right now, but if you look up "plant electrophysiology" in google books, you'll find some free excerpts that will be of interest.

I'll have a look.

 

A reader of my newsletter just sent me the following link that describes some research out of Korea where scientists were stimulating lettuce & hot pepper plants with 2-10 volts and achieving gains in growth and pepper size. What's especially interesting to me is their use of DNA testing to look for genetic changes (presumably gene expression) in the soil & root bacterial populations as the plant grows, across both electrified and control groups: http://file.scirp.org/Html/2-3000235_19031.htm

I see more questions than answers there. It looks like minimal advantage over conventional methods but with the added cost of all the electrical equipment such as electrodes, wires, controllers, etc..

 

While the formatting isn't that great, there were some experiments done by the Missouri Botanical Gardens in 1918 that show promising results from DC electrification: http://wwww.archive.org/stream/mobot31753002460860/mobot31753002460860_djvu.txt[/size]

Perhaps you could quote the information you think is worthwhile from that massive text.

 

If you were interested in seeing how AC fields are beneficial to tomato seedlings, you can check out this paper: http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-3591e99e-32b2-4534-9733-fa6ab7bb9ab6/c/Patwardhan-403-413.pdf[/size]

This seems like a minimal increase in germination rate, but if it was to be found significant and effective then it would likely be best implemented by seed producers. But again, is all the apparatus and additional handling worth the small increase?

 

Regarding magnetic stimulation, here's a paper I found but haven't read yet that you would find interesting (my focus for the time being is DC & pulsed DC forms of stimulation): http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=399_15

Alas only the Abstract is freely available.

 

Within my close circles, I and my fellow experimenters have personally experienced accelerated and increased growth of tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, sunflowers, squash, and corn.

 

I recommend starting off by doing some research - try to go a little bit deeper before dismissing what's possible. I believe that if you search around for awhile you'll come across people finding success with audio signals, ultrasonics, high voltage electric fields, and more. Best of luck!

I remain unconvinced of any significant lab results let alone any real practicality for full-scale gardens or farms. Installing, protecting, maintaining, and replacing all those wires, electrodes, controllers, and other such equipment as required seems prohibitively expensive even if modest improvement in production were demonstrated.

 

I am all too much reminded of the Road to Welleville. It's all fun & games until someone gets electrocuted.

[hypervalent_iodine]

!

Moderator Note

David Wechsler,

 

Thank you firstly for your contributions and welcome to SFN. Please be aware that we have rules that prohibit advertising in threads. As such, I have removed the link to your company's website and ask that you do not link to it in the future unless you are linking to some kind of supporting information / documentation related to the content of your post(s).