The article presents a study of the effect of plasma-activated water (PAW) on the development of seedlings from carrot and radish seeds, as well as forcing of garlic with its subsequent growth during its vegetative reproduction. The results of the experiment were obtained by a comparative analysis of the parameters of the development of crops and plantings, watering of which was carried out with treated, as well as not treated with low-temperature plasma water. During the germination of carrot and radish seeds, as well as forcing of garlic bulbs from the cloves, the positive effect of plasma-treated water was established. The germination numbers of carrot and radish seeds increased by an average of 18-20%, and the germination of garlic cloves by 20 ± 5%. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the PAW treatment of the planting material of root and bulbous vegetable crops contributes to the acceleration of certain physiological processes (removal from the latent stage of seeds and the beginning of bulb vegetation), as well as, possibly, to the acceleration of mitotic processes of the apical meristems of the studied plants. This work can form the basis of a fundamentally new eco-friendly, as well as cost-effective approach in the cultivation of food, medicinal and other industrially significant plants.

The spatio-temporal structure and plasma parameters of a new type of glow discharge—atmospheric-pressure interelectrode microwave discharge in gas flow—were studied experimentally and numerically. A multi-electrode coaxial-type cold plasma torch developed for large-area surface treatment was used as a gas discharge device. The torch was supplied with microwave power (2.45 GHz, ∼100 W) via a coaxial cable by a typical wave-guide plasmatron. Self-sustained glow discharges were excited between the round ends of the rod-like electrodes and inner wall of the cylindrical discharge chamber near the outlet. The filamentation of the discharge channel in the near-electrode regions was detected by high-speed video filming. The dendritic self-similar (fractal) character of the filaments’ structure was revealed and analyzed. The branching factor and fractal dimension of this structure were estimated as 3 and 1.1–1.3, respectively. Using discharge gas temperature T g = 1200 ± 100 K, as determined from the emission spectroscopy measurements, the following discharge plasma parameters were obtained from numerical calculations: electron temperature T e = 1.14 eV and concentration n e ∼ 10 21 – 10 22 m −3 , conductivity σ ∼ 400 Ω − 1 m − 1 , current density j ∼ 10 6 A m −2 , and electric field strength E ∼ 10 4 V m −1 .

The electric field strength in the channel of a discharge with a liquid electrolyte cathode at atmospheric pressure in air with the current in range of 20–90 mA is measured. The dependences of the electric field strength on the value of the discharge current are found for aqueous solutions with different compositions and with different pH values, but with the same specific conductivity of 300 μS/cm. It is shown that these dependences don’t differ by much from eachother. The dependence of the electric field strength in a discharge with a liquid cathode on the discharge current, averaged over the composition of the solution, is obtained.