Stimulation of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seed germination by exposure to electromagnetic fields

•Oil Palm seeds are notorious for slow and unreliable germination.•Magnetic treatment stimulates imbibition of water.•Magnetic treatment stimulates germination in a very short time (30d).•Electromagnetic methods allow preparation of detailed dose response curves.•Large numbers of seeds can be processed.

Difficult-to-germinate seeds are a common plant conservation, plantation and biotechnological problem. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) seed germination takes 6 months to 1 year with ≈40% failure rate. We investigated the affect of various electromagnetic DC field strengths on oil palm germination. Kernels imbibed water more effectively when exposed to a magnetic field. The kernels were divided into three groups. The first group (50) was soaked (imbibed) in distilled water (2 h) with no exposure to applied magnetic fields (blank control). The second group was exposed to magnetic fields with intensities of 2.5 mT, 5.0 mT, 7.0 mT, 9.0 mT and 11.0 mT for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 h (Dry Treated Kernels, DTK). The same electromagnetic protocol was conducted on a third group but with kernels which were immersed in water (Magnetically-Treated-Water-Kernels, MTWK). 96% germination was achieved by day-30 for the MTWK treatment using 9.0 mT for 4 h: slightly lower results were found for DTK kernels. None of the controls germinated within 30 days. Young oil palm seedlings kept in a shade house (≈110 μmol quanta m−2 s−1 PPFD) watered every day with MTW grew 3 times faster (3.1 mm day−1) than controls watered using unmagnetised water.