Jeiran Ghanbari zade; Davood Naderi; Ahmad Reza Golparvar
Abstract
Introduction: Production of ornamental plants is a global trade. The economic value of ornamental plants has been significantly increased in the past two decades. These plants have high potential for continuous development of domestic and international markets in the future. Alstroemeria is a perennial, ...
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Introduction: Production of ornamental plants is a global trade. The economic value of ornamental plants has been significantly increased in the past two decades. These plants have high potential for continuous development of domestic and international markets in the future. Alstroemeria is a perennial, monocotyledon, ornamental plant which is used as a cut flower or potted flowering plant for the home and as herbaceous urban landscape plant. Popularity of this flower is increasing because of its beautiful flowers, wide range of colors (orange, pink, purple, red, yellow, white, and the other colors), year-round flowering, as well as high yield.Nowadays, soilless culture has been developed a lot. Permanent use of soil nutrients in developing countries without adequate replacement has reduced production capacity and nutrients of soils. Therefore, selecting a suitable substrate is one of the main factors in producing high quality potted plants. Many factors affect the quality and growth of flowers including medium. Thus, we try to use substrates which have positive effects on flowers’ quality and its growth. Such substrates must be economical without any pollution of water or soil.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the effects of peat moss, cocopeat, leaf manure and spent mushroom compost in three levels of 40, 60 and 80% in combination with Tuff mineral soil plus control treatment (100% of Tuff mineral soil) were investigated on growth characteristics and flowering of potted alstroemeria. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 13 treatments and four replications in the research greenhouses of Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch. Alstroemeria rhizomes (2 to 2.5 cm) were grown in four liter pots. About three centimeters of leca was poured in the bottom of each container and then pots were filled with specific volume ratios of substrates which had been mixed completely. After that, rhizomes were planted and pots were irrigated. Irrigation was carried out every three days in spring and every two days in summer. At the end of the experiment, the number of leaves, flowers and flowering branches, fresh and dry weight of the shoot, rhizome size and flower life were evaluated.
Results and Discussion: Results showed that the highest number of flowering branches, leaf number, rhizome size and shoot dry weight were observed in peat moss 80% treatment. The highest vase life of the flowers was obtained from peat moss 80% and cocopeat 40%. The highest shoot fresh weight was observed in peat moss80% and fungal compost60%. On the other side, the lowest number of leaves and flowers, rhizome size, fresh and dry weights of aerial part were obtained from compost80%. The lowest number of flowering branches was produced by compost 80%, leaf manure 40%, leaf manure 60%, and control treatments. Also, the least vase life of flowers was observed in Tuff mineral soil and compost 80%.
Conclusions: According to results, the presence of peat moss and cocopeat in the culture medium increased the growth and flowering characteristics significantly so that the highest means of traits were observed in media with higher peat moss amounts. In substrates containing peat moss, optimum absorption of nitrogen and potassium will improve the quantity and vase life of the flowers. Absorption of the adequate phosphorus causes better root growth and therefore better absorption of nutrients and increases the number, longevity and size of flowers. Better performance of organic substrates than mineral soils can be due to higher porosity and water holding capacity of these substrates. Considering the results obtained from chemical analysis of culture media, peat moss had a significant effect on plant growth and yield because of higher levels of manganese and zinc nutrients. On the other hand, the positive effect of cocopeat on increasing some of the studied traits may be due to the physical and chemical properties of this substance and its high ability to keep up water and nutrients which provide favorable growth conditions for plant. It seems that the use of this material in combination with the culture medium improves the nutrition, ventilation and growth of the plant; therefore, this medium is recommended for the growth of flowering plants, especially alstroemeria. The reason of decreased growth in media containing leaf manure can be high electrical conductivity of theses substrates.
Seyyedeh Mahdiyeh Kharrazi; Ali Tehranifar; Seyyed Hossein Nemati; Abdolreza Bagheri
Abstract
Introduction: Amaryllis is grown as pot outdoor plant and cut flower. Generally, this ornamental plant propagates by seed, suckers and scale cutting. Propagating by seed is not commercial and often used to produce new varieties. On the other hand, number of bulblets per mother bulb is very low under ...
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Introduction: Amaryllis is grown as pot outdoor plant and cut flower. Generally, this ornamental plant propagates by seed, suckers and scale cutting. Propagating by seed is not commercial and often used to produce new varieties. On the other hand, number of bulblets per mother bulb is very low under normal condition. Besides each bulb produces only 2 or 3 bulblets in a growing season and they become mature and produce flower stalk after 2 to 3 years. In some cases bulbs have no capacity to produce bulblet. Therefore, one of the strategies for shortening the growth period of the plant is to improve the traditional methods of plant propagations.
Materials and Methods: This study was done as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 7 replications to evaluate the effects of medium and position of twin scales in mother bulbs on propagation of bulblets, in order to increase the rate of propagation of this ornamental plant. To measure wet and dry weight of explants, 3 replicates were used. For propagation, bulbs were cut radially into 12 equal pieces, so that each pieces were contained a part of the basal plate. To evaluate the effects of position of twin scales in mother bulbs, pieces were divided as twin scales and classified in 5 groups, so that the outermost twin scales was grouped in class 1 and the innermost twin scales was grouped in class 5. After that, the scale cuttings were dipped in 0.1 % carbendazim solution for 25 minutes and then surface water were dried using sterilized tissue paper. Media that used in this study were sand, perlite, vermiculite, Peat moss and cocopeat. For removing possible contamination from the media, all media were autoclaved for 30 minutes at 121 °C. Then twin scales cuttings were cultured in vented transparent plastic containers that filled with different media and were kept in a growth chamber at 25 °C and 16 hours lighting.Number of produced bulblet, bulblet diameter, root number, root length, fresh and dry weight of plants and browning rate of scales were recorded at the end of the experiment.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that medium and twin scale position in the mother bulb had a significant effect on the quality produced bulblet. The highest fresh weight of bulblet (1.58 g), bulblet dry weight (0.21 g) and the maximum diameter of the produced bulblet (1.5 cm) were obtained in the outermost twin scales and peat moss medium. Analysis of variance showed that the effect of culture medium on the number and length of produced leaf was significant (p
