INFLUENCE OF SHORT PERIODS OF RESTRICTED SOIL AERATION ON DEVELOPMENT OF TULIPS

In a series of pot experiments performed over a three-year period, tulip bulbs (size 9 cm) of the cultivar ‘Apeldoorn’, planted in dune sand, were submitted to a range of groundwater levels for various lengths of time at several stages of plant development before emergence, and at different temperature levels.
Also the influence of air or soil around the bulb itself was investigated.

Soil temperature had a marked influence.
A relationship was found between the degree of injury to the plant and the volume of the air-filled pores around the bulb during different periods.
The stage of plant development was important, which is in agreement with the experience of bulbgrowers.
Sensitivity to poor aeration conditions decreased in a later stage of development.
The bulb seemed to be more sensitive to poor aeration than the root system.
Under field conditions the situation around the bulbs had great effects on flowering, and shoot and root development.

I International Symposium on Flowerbulbs

G.G.M. van der Valk

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1971.23.53