ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE OF THE TISSUE OF GRASSES RECEIVING COLD TREATMENTS

Abstract

The impedance and conductivity of plant tissue were studied for four species of grasses before, after, and during cold-conditioning. Conditioned plants gave high impedance readings and untreated plants low readings. When introduced to low temperature conditions, all plants showed increasing impedances. A highly significant relation between conductivity percentage and log impedance was found in all four species. Although the impedance method was rapid and convenient, there were temporal fluctuations for both cold-conditioned and unconditioned plants of all species. Thus, neither impedance method nor the determination of conductivity would provide a satisfactory test for the evaluation of differences in the response to cold stress of grass populations used in plant-breeding programs.