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Cold plasma is a new agricultural technology demonstrating wide potential application in plants. Previous studies have elucidated that the cold plasma pre-treatment of seeds improves seed germination and early growth. However, the effects of cold plasma treatment on vegetative propagation, including rooting, remains unclear. In this study, effects of cold plasma treatment on rooting percentage, physiochemical properties in stolon cuttings and physiological characteristics in the rooting process of centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro.) Hack.) stolon cuttings were investigated. The centipedegrass stolon cuttings were pre-treated with 0, 150, 300 and 450 W of cold plasma for 15 s. Cold plasma treatments positively stimulated rooting of stolon cuttings, and the 300 W treatment yielded the best effect. Rooting percentage, numbers of adventitious roots, total root length, total root surface area, total root volume, average root diameter, and dry weights of roots were significantly improved by cold plasma treatments. The conductivity and water uptake increased by cold plasma treatments; the auxin (IAA) content and activities of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities improved, and the IAA-oxidase activity decreased; the soluble sugar and protein contents increased after cold plasma treatment. The results of this study not only showed that cold plasma pre-treatment may improve rooting of vegetations but also provided inspiration and support for the application of cold plasma in vegetative propagation of plant.

This study explored the effects of cold plasma treatment on seed germination, plant growth, and peanut yield. Cold plasma treatment improved germination and seedling growth, and the 120 W treatment produced the best effect. Germination potential and germination rate were markedly raised by 150% and 21%, respectively. Germination was accelerated and the uniformity of emergence improved. The apparent contact angle was decreased by 53%. Seedling shoot and root dry weights increased by 11% and 9%. Leaf area, leaf thickness, leaf nitrogen concentration, chlorophyll contents, and dry weight at the fruiting stage, together with plant height, stem diameter, and root dry weight at the mature stage were all markedly raised by the cold plasma treatment. The cold plasma treatment enhanced yield components, such as branch numbers per plant, pod numbers per plant, and 100 pod weights by 8%, 13%, and 9%, respectively, compared to the control. Furthermore, the yield improved by 10%. These results suggested that cold plasma treatment improved germination, plant growth, and yield, which might be due to the cold plasma increasing the leaf area, nitrogen concentrations, and chlorophyll contents.

This study investigated the effect of cold helium plasma treatment on seed germination, growth and yield of wheat. The effects of different power of cold plasma on the germination of treated wheat seeds were studied. We found that the treatment of 80 W could significantly improve seed germination potential (6.0%) and germination rate (6.7%) compared to the control group. Field experiments were carried out for wheat seeds treated with 80 W cold plasma. Compared with the control, plant height (20.3%), root length (9.0%) and fresh weight (21.8%) were improved significantly at seedling stage. At booting stage, plant height, root length, fresh weight, stem diameter, leaf area and leaf thickness of the treated plant were respectively increased by 21.8%, 11.0%, 7.0%, 9.0%, 13.0% and 25.5%. At the same time, the chlorophyll content (9.8%), nitrogen (10.0%) and moisture content (10.0%) were higher than those of the control, indicating that cold plasma treatment could promote the growth of wheat. The yield of treated wheat was 7.55 t ha−1, 5.89% more than that of the control. Therefore, our results show that cold plasma has important application prospects for increasing wheat yield.

The effects of low-vacuum helium cold plasma treatment on the seed germination, plant growth and yield of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L. cv. Zhongshuang 9) were investigated. Seeds were exposed to low-vacuum helium cold plasma ranging from 0–120 W for 15 s. Cold plasma increased the germination, plant growth and yield of oilseed rape, and the treatment of 100 W provided the best result. The germination rate, germination and vigor indices, and uniformity of emergence were improved by cold plasma treatment. Cold plasma raised the relative conductivity and water uptake, and reduced the apparent contact angle. The characteristics of plant growth, including plant height, stem diameter, dry weights of shoot and root at the seedling, bolting and flowering stages were increased by the cold plasma treatment. Yield components, including pod numbers per plant and 1000 seed weights were increased by the cold plasma treatment. Furthermore, the yield per plant increased by 28.20%. These results suggest that cold plasma treatment has the potential to improve the yield of oilseed rape through the enhancement of permeability, wettability and capacity of water uptake of the seeds, seed germination and plant growth.

This study investigated the effect of cold plasma seed treatment on tomato bacterial wilt, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (R. solanacearum), and the regulation of resistance mechanisms. The effect of cold plasma of 80W on seed germination, plant growth, nutrient uptake, disease severity, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration and activities of peroxidase (POD; EC 1.11.1.7), polyphenol oxidase (PPO; EC 1.10.3.2) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL; EC 4.3.1.5) were examined in tomato plants. Plasma treatment increased tomato resistance to R. solanacearum with an efficacy of 25.0%. Plasma treatment significantly increased both germination and plant growth in comparison with the control treatment, and plasma-treated plants absorbed more calcium and boron than the controls. In addition, H2O2 levels in treated plants rose faster and reached a higher peak, at 2.579 µM gFW-1, 140% greater than that of the control. Activities of POD (421.3 U gFW-1), PPO (508.8 U gFW-1) and PAL (707.3 U gFW-1) were also greater in the treated plants than in the controls (103.0 U gFW-1, 166.0 U gFW-1 and 309.4 U gFW-1, respectively). These results suggest that plasma treatment affects the regulation of plant growth, H2O2 concentration, and POD, PPO and PAL activity in tomato, resulting in an improved resistance to R. solanacearum. Consequently, cold plasma seed treatment has the potential to control tomato bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum.