Physiological Quality of Maize Hybrid Seeds Treated with Copper Nanoparticles

In corn, several factors determine productivity, especially those inherent in planting and the quality of seeds. Nanoparticles that contain some essential element in plants are classified as nanofertilizers, which are allegedly more efficient than traditional fertilizers. The experimental design used was the Randomized Block Design (DBC), in a factorial scheme (5 x 5) with 3 repetitions. The seeds of corn hybrids treated with copper nanoparticles were subjected to germination and seed vigor tests. The data were submitted to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) by the F test (p≤0.05), for the nanocopper doses, regression analysis (p≤0.05) was performed with the choice of mathematical models through the coefficient of determination (R2). Differences between means were compared using the Tukey test (p≤0.05). Seed vigor was assessed by testing the first count and germination speed. Corn hybrids showed an average of 95.6% in relation to normal plants, not expressing a significant difference between them. The results indicate an optimum value for the seed treatment time and for the concentration of copper nanoparticles in the reaction medium. The longer the seed treatment time and the higher the concentrations in the reaction medium, it is possible to incorporate higher amounts of nanoparticles to the seeds without the treatment. The presence of nanoparticles in the seeds did not affect the germination speed per hybrid. This indicator shows that nanoparticles do not interfere with metabolic mechanisms in the germination phase.