We have investigated the behaviour ofwheat seeds exposed to plas-
ma treatment in a surface discharge at atmospheric pressure and room
temperature. It was found that the roots and sprouts of plasma treated
samples were longer and heavier than those of the untreated seeds,
for all treatment durations investigated. The most substantial increase
in length was obtained for seeds treated in plasma for 15 min. In this
case the mean root length was 36.49 ± 0.46 cm, while in the case of
the control samples the mean root length was 32.89 ± 0.27 cm. The
dryweight of roots after 15min plasma treatmentwas 1.06 g, consider-
ably higher as compared with the control (0.78 g). The distribution of
the sprouts lengthwasmuch narrower for the treated samples, suggest-
ing more uniform growth of the seedlings. However, their weight was
about the same in both cases. The R/S ratio was increased after plasma
treatment (from 0.88 for the control samples to 1.2 for 15 min plasma
treated seeds). This improvementmight be due to increasedwettability
observed for the treated seeds, however further studies are required in
order to clarify the mechanism responsible for the enhancement of
growth characteristics of seeds investigated in this paper.