Effect of Magnetic Field on Germination and Plant Growth

email468

email468

Well-Known Member
PowerTrance said:
I am quite curious because a seed germed under the north magnet made a plant with 2 main stems... like a wishbone!
Click to expand...
I realize you are not making any claims but would point out the following:
there is nothing in your experiment that would indicate the magnet is the cause of the 2 main stems.

You would have to replicate these results many times to have something you could call statistically significant evidence.
 
Gamberro

Gamberro

Well-Known Member
email468 said:
i think the idea of the moving light source (or moving your plants relative to the light source) is to make sure your plants get even coverage. that is why they sell light movers (plus you can cover more area with a single light).
Click to expand...
True, the main difference being a central light source. My question to these suppliers would be, is there really any increased cost-efficiency? Maybe the individual plants' yields are higher, but I doubt that the cost of a constantly-rotating centrifuge would be worth the overall yield.
 
Mr. Maryjane

Mr. Maryjane

Well-Known Member
Gamberro said:
True, the main difference being a central light source. My question to these suppliers would be, is there really any increased cost-efficiency? Maybe the individual plants' yields are higher, but I doubt that the cost of a constantly-rotating centrifuge would be worth the overall yield.
Click to expand...

hey, I just want to know if it'll have an effect on the plant, then take what I learn and then I'll try to figure out how to get bigger yields. and you could hook a little spinny thing up to an exercise bike, because I could totally sit there and peddle while watching my plants
 
immrtlreiku

immrtlreiku

Active Member
The polarity was constantly alternating which means that north and south might need to change every sec. I wonder if they stopped it at some point to come to the conclusion that polarity doesn't matter
 
la9

la9

Well-Known Member
PowerTrance said:
found a sweet research article at:
Acta Horticulturae

This paper describes the effect of alternating magnetic fields on plant germination and growth. Experiments were conducted utilizing various frequencies and two states of polarity. Electromagnetic coils were used to generate the fields and 'Komatsuna' plants were chosen as subjects. The frequency was varied from 1 to 1000 Hz, at a fixed intensity of 4 or 5 Gauss. The magnetic polarity was controlled by reversing the current direction. Measured parameters were germination rate, growth rate and yield of the plant. The results indicated that magnetic fields do influence plant growth and germination :mrgreen:, and that frequency of the field is a more important factor in germination rates than polarity. Maximum germination rates, which were 20 % higher than control rates, were obtained at around 10 Hz :joint::joint:. An alternating magnetic field of 10 Hz was shown to have a statistically significant effect on plant growth, as measured by leaf area. The difference in growth rate between treated and control plants decreased after the field was removed.

Did some more googling...
So, hook up a function generator kit:
Gibson Tech Ed - G-159P Function Generator Kit

to an electro magnet.. at 0,10 hz. ==> FASTER, MORE GANJA

Is this a joke? How do you hook up an electromagnet to the function gen??

Anyone want to test this out, or buy the article and tell us what settings to use ;-) ?
Click to expand...

It is not a joke, it will work, the best way to describe it would be a tesla coil circuit but instead of shooting lightning you are making magnetic fields.

The function generator would be used to vary the frequency of the magnetic field. Here are a few things to consider. I would use a round iron core wrapped with magnetic wire so I could place the seed right in the middle of the magnetic field you are creating. Remember when you were a kid making a magnet with a nail, wire and a battery. This setup would be the same. The function generator won't have enough current to supply the magnet so you would have to isolate the output with a transistor to add more voltage and current to the situation and might be better off just taking a 555 timer and running it's output into an amplifier circuit. If you make a mistake the 555 is about .25 compared to the function generator is going to run a couple hundred. Then you can vary the frequency of the timer or function generator to get what you wanted to experiment with.

Basically building one half of a switching power supply. You might take one of those out of an old computer and reverse engineer it.

Did I make sense of it all or make it more confusing ?
 
Dislexicmidget2021

Dislexicmidget2021

Well-Known Member
That is crazy, but dont you need alot of cash to make the generator,and the power consumption would probly be terrible.OR i maybe wrong here.
 
la9

la9

Well-Known Member
Dislexicmidget2021 said:
That is crazy, but dont you need alot of cash to make the generator,and the power consumption would probly be terrible.OR i maybe wrong here.
Click to expand...
The power consumption would depend on how strong you wanted the magnetic field. You could designe it to be about anything from minor to taking out the whole block (I was out of town that day, really I was)
 
dahamma

dahamma

Well-Known Member
this is all very interesting , and also is starting to make sense. I live in canada (northern hemisphere)and started growing in may,all my seeds germed,now i am germing and growing in fall with way lower percentages for success.also my plants are much shorter with less yield. I was asking myself do they know it's fall without a indoor change in enviroment from spring to fall? has anyone else experienced this, with a bigger magnetic change between spring and fall?
 
Jonus

Jonus

Well-Known Member
It would be interesting to see if any study had been done around plant growth in the artic area since that is where the earths electromagnetic field is at its most potent.

However I am of the opinion that plants need certain stresses to help them grow. Naturally occuring stresses are bio diversities, plants grown together, fighting for nutrients can often get better results than individual container growing, as does the oscillating fan make plants fight and stress to remain upright thus strengthening the main stem and branches.

Inducing an electromagnetic field probably has the same affect, and in short dosages may have a positive affect on the plant by raising its stress levels, but unlike the way a plant stresses when there is pH or nutrient deficiencies, in this case there isn't.

Would be something interesting to experiment with.
 
marc413

marc413

Active Member
this is great news ... thats why when people play music for their plants .....there is better growth
 
Gamberro

Gamberro

Well-Known Member
marc413 said:
this is great news ... thats why when people play music for their plants .....there is better growth
Click to expand...
I had thought that was an urban myth, so I researched it. For some reason, people think classical music, but in fact being spoken to and playing music does promote plant growth. But that is probably due to vibration- just my opinion, but really, what else could it be? Electromagnetic power is a rather different deal.
Another fun fact I unearthed: heavy metal promotes plant growth more than other music genres.
 
la9

la9

Well-Known Member
Let's hook up a playstation controller to a 5 gallon bucket and leave it run on vibrate and see what the results are.

With magnetic flux I don't really see you causing any vibration unless it is on some molecular level that is far over my head.

I don't know, I wound a couple coils over the weekend I might just try to build something in the future.
 
thesmokering

thesmokering

Well-Known Member
Just to clarify I think sound is vibration of air. Magnetic field causes charge to go in circles, like electrons. But in a plant magnetic field causes effects so complicated that only a handfull of people in the entire world could really predict the effect, so it is worth experimenting. Fields larger than earths magnetic field are unlikely to help, though, because the plant would not do that from evolution but from chance.
 
B

born2killspam

Well-Known Member
One hypothesis regarding weak magnetic fields on plant growth is that the field weakens the hydrogen bonds between water molecules etc, allowing for easier diffusion through cell walls..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top