APPLIED ASPECTS OF JUVENILITY AND SOME THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

From the practical and agricultural point of view two main aspects of juvenility affecting crop production may be distinguished: (1) the delay of flowering and fruiting (sexual reproduction) and (2) the greater ease of rooting and other forms of propagation (vegetative reproduction). It is of major interest, therefore, to identify the physiological controls regulating such behaviour.
From the evolutionary point of view a number of clear selective advantages in having a juvenile phase may be recognised.
Possible physiological mechanisms underlying the changes occurring on the transition from the juvenile to the mature state will briefly be discussed in relation to apical structure and hormone metabolism – especially that of the gibberellins.
Possible techniques of artificially modifying or reversing these conditions will also be considered.

Symposium on Juvenility in Woody Perennials

W.W. Schwabe

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1976.56.3