Effects of calcium polysulphide on morphometric, physiological and biochemical processes in wheat
In this paper, the effect of calcium polysulphide (CaS<sub>4</sub>) 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 CaS<sub>4</sub> 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% CaS<sub>4</sub> 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 CaS<sub>4</sub> concentration is shown to be the most beneficial compared to other CaS<sub>4</sub> concentrations. The use of CaS<sub>4 </sub>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 CaS<sub>4</sub> solution showed a lower biological activity compared to Thiram. It is found that the effect of CaS<sub>4</sub> on the germination of wheat seeds depends on its concentration and time of exposure. In addition, it is shown that the studied CaS<sub>4</sub> solution exhibits a certain level of fungicidal activity.