Articles
THE EFFECT OF WATER STRESS DURING PRODUCTION ON THE POST PRODUCTION QUALITY OF POTTED MINIATURE ROSES
Article number
464_125
Pages
539 – 539
Language
Abstract
In order to investigate the effects of drought stress during production on post production quality and to determine if it is possible to increase the tolerance of a plant to post production drought stress, potted miniature roses of Bianca Parade® ‘Poulbian’ and Charming Parade® ‘Poulhappy’ were produced under four different watering treatments.
The watering treatments included a control (Treatment A), which received daily waterings at a level equal to consumption, a 75% water availability (Treatment B) and a 60% water availability (Treatment C) based on the control plants.
In addition, an intermittent drought stress treatment was given where the plants were watered as for the controls except that they received three 4.5-day drying cycles at 10 day intervals (Treatment D). At flowering all plants were placed in an evaluation room, and half of the plants from each treatment were given a post production drought stress to the point where bud + flower and leaf wilting occurred.
Thereafter, all plants received adequate water.
The watering treatments included a control (Treatment A), which received daily waterings at a level equal to consumption, a 75% water availability (Treatment B) and a 60% water availability (Treatment C) based on the control plants.
In addition, an intermittent drought stress treatment was given where the plants were watered as for the controls except that they received three 4.5-day drying cycles at 10 day intervals (Treatment D). At flowering all plants were placed in an evaluation room, and half of the plants from each treatment were given a post production drought stress to the point where bud + flower and leaf wilting occurred.
Thereafter, all plants received adequate water.
The plants were evaluated both during production and for 25 days post production.
It was found that the production water treatments altered the water consumption (Diurnal Water Loss, Figure 1), the size of the plant (Estimated Leaf Area, Figure 2) and the post production quality of the plant as evaluated by the number of open flowers, damaged flowers, buds, damaged buds and the proportion of damaged leaves.
All plants of each cultivar flowered at the same time irrespective of the production water treatment.
The post production drought stress treatment reduced the post production quality of the plants.
In addition, the two cultivars responded differently to both the production and post production drought stress treatments.
Authors
M. H. Williams, E. Rosenqvist, M. Gotfredsen
Keywords
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