BIOMAGNETIC RESPONSES IN POTATOES

Abstract

Plants grown in the greenhouse from excised magnetically treated eyes of the Netted Gem potato, Solanum tuberosum L., yielded a greater weight and a greater number of tubers than those grown from untreated eyes. Pregermination magnetic treatment of the eyes sometimes produced an increase in top growth of plants. Plants grown in the field from excised magnetically treated eyes yielded 14% more marketable tubers that weighed 38.5% more than those grown from untreated eyes. Pregermination magnetic treatment of the eye may have effected a change in the metabolic process in the bud that eventually promoted earlier and greater tuber initiation.