Seed Germination Enhancement of Zinnia (Zinnia elegans)

The effect of electromagnetic field was examined on zinnia (zinniaelegans) seeds to enhance seed germination and early growth. the seeds wereexposed to four magnetic strengths of 15, 100, 400 and 800 ?t in four durationsof 30, 60, 120 and 240 min. the experiments were carried out in two forms oflaboratory germination and soil emergence. results showed that magnetic fieldapplication enhanced seed performance in both terms of laboratory germinationand soil emergence. the magnetic field significantly (p?0.05) affected rootlength, shoot length, fresh and dry root weight, fresh and dry shoot weight,seedling length and weight, germination percentage, speed of germination,vigor index i and ii in laboratory germination. also, the magnetic fieldexposure significantly affected soil emergence factors of root length, shootlength, dry root weight, dry shoot weight, seedling length, emergence percentageand emergence speed at 0.05 level of probability. the other factors weresignificantly (p?0.05) different compared with unexposed control. no significantlydifferences were found on the interaction of time and exposure field. the bestresults were found to 400 ?t (micro tesla) on seed germination and seedemergence. the exposure durations of 240 and 30 min showed promisingresults over all magnetic fields in seed germination and emergence, respectively.however, there was no significant difference among exposure times.