METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMERCIAL PRESOWING TREATMENT OF SEEDS Russian patent published in 2006 - IPC A01C1/00 

FIELD: agriculture, in particular, presowing treatment of seeds by means of biophysical methods.

SUBSTANCE: method involves providing commercial presowing treatment of seeds by means of pulsed gas discharge plasma radiation, said discharge being formed in radiation volume of helium plasma, or hydrogen plasma, or atmospheric air plasma, or liquid vapor plasma; selecting liquid composition for specific seed material; passing seeds under radiation source in 1 or 2 layers; treating seeds no more than three days before sowing procedure. Apparatus has inlet hopper, treatment chamber incorporating plasma radiation generator with additional electrodes connected to pulse former, mechanisms for selecting, laying, transporting and discharging of seeds, passage for back spilling of seeds from inlet hopper, mechanisms for advancement of apparatus, and system for automatic controlling of apparatus. Treatment chamber is made dustproof and is provided with inlet and outlet slots for conveyor, said slots being aligned with inlet slots of air ducts of cooling system for radiation source. Buckets of charging elevator and inlet hopper in seed pickup mechanism are disposed across width of seed layer on conveyor belt. Seed pickup mechanism is equipped with movable shutter having electric drive connected with automatic control system. Passage for back spilling of seeds from inlet hopper is combined with charging elevator casing. Drive shaft of charging elevator is equipped with torque sensor connected to automatic control system.

EFFECT: enhanced promoting effect of presowing seed treatment procedure.

3 cl, 2 dwg