EXPEDITING PLANT GROWTH.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1912, Page 6

EXPEDITING PLANT GROWTH.

INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. An interesting series of experiments is being conducted at the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent's Park, with the object of testing the new system for the electro-chemical culture of vegetable growths. Some remarkable results have been achieved d.mng these experiments. Mr E. Lowitz, who is conducting the tests, states ~hat wheat seeds have germinated .'n two days under electrical treatment, and the shoots have attained a height of ten inches in a fortaight. When it h remembered that grains of wheat in Ihe ordinary way require some ninety days in the soil before they germinate the extraordinary success of the new treatment is apparent. Mr Lowitz pointed out that it was not only in this direction that electrochemical culture had achieved valuable results. "The percentage of seeds germinated," lie added, "has been enormously increased. We took wheat, of which thirty per cent, of the grains germinated in the ground in the ordinary way, and treated it with electricity. Within two days 76 per cent. of the grains woke into life, and a few later every one had germinated. "Our experiments have been confined to one or two varieties of growth, but it is obvious that the treatment can be applied to all, from trees down to grass. Its adoption, for instaneo, by market gardeners would result in remarkable crops both for size and prolificacy. The initial outlay of £6OO for the apparatus would speedily be repaid in the increased produce of the land. "Hitherto the difficulty in electric treatment of growths has been that electricity generates heat, and the plants have been scorched. In the present treatment heat lias been eliminated. The system is simple. A high voltage is applied to the seed or to theplant, and renewed strength and rigor U imparted, while all the parasites are destroyed. Therein lies the value of the treatment. While providing excellent nourishment, electricity lias a fatal effect on the parasite."