Technique of Plant Electrical Stimulation by Weak Electric Currents

Background

The living plant behavior under external electric influences can be attributed to its amazing properties. Inside of the plants, bioelectric potentials are generated and they themselves are exposed to the effects of the atmospheric electricity. In plants, signals are distributed; for example, the root “informs” the stem when damaged, then the irritation is transmitted to the leaves; and while responding, all of them together change their root activity. Mainly, the damaged part becomes electrically negative in the range of 20-120mV depending on the type of the plant and other reasons (Gordeev et al., 1991).

There exists a potential difference between different organs of plants, for example, between separate parts of a stem, a root, a flower, etc. (Opritov et al., 1991). In different trees, between the electrode in the soil and the one in the stem, the potential difference reaches 0.1V - 0.7V (Kholmansky et al., 2016).

Plants are not indifferent to the electricity; this was established a long ago by scientific and amateur experiments both successful and ended in failure. In 1747, the French physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet published his results on germination accelerating of seeds exposed to an electrical field. In 1783, the French abbot Bertolon informed on the negative result obtaining in his experiment on the electricity effect. He concluded that the electricity results in delays of the plants germination and growth. The reason for his failure is similar to the results of the experiments of the Italian researcher Gardini, who screened his plants from the atmospheric electricity with a metal wire grid (Gordeev et al., 1991).