Effects of calcium polysulphide on morphometric, physiological and biochemical processes in wheat
In this paper, the effect of calcium polysulphide (CaS4) on the growth, physiological, biochemical and pro-ductive parameters of wheat plants is studied under both laboratory and field conditions. The solutions of CaS4 with concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 5% were used for wheat seed incubation during 3 and 6 hours. In the samples, the wet and dry mass, the shoot and root length, the rate of superoxide anion for-mation, the content of hydrogen peroxide were measured. The peroxidase and catalase activity and the malondialdehyde concentration were defined. In the field experiments, wheat seeds were treated with a CaS4 solution at a rate of 0.6 l/t, followed by the determination of the number of shoots affected by root rot. When wheat seeds were treated with a 1% CaS4 solution for 3 hours, the 6-day old sprouts demonstrated an increase in the leaf length. Judging by its overall effect on the root cell redox system of wheat plants, this CaS4 concentration is shown to be the most beneficial compared to other CaS4 concentrations. The use of CaS4 for the pre-seeding treatment of wheat seeds under field conditions led to an increase in the har-vest and the seed protein content of about 3 kg/ha and 6%, respectively. In terms of fungicidal activity, this CaS4 solution showed a lower biological activity compared to Thiram. It is found that the effect of CaS4 on the germination of wheat seeds depends on its concentration and time of exposure. In addition, it is shown that the studied CaS4 solution exhibits a certain level of fungicidal activity.