GIBBERELLIC ACID SPRAY INCREASED SIZE AND QUALITY OF PROTEA ´PINK ICE´ FLOWERS – A PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT

Flowering buds, about 40 mm long, were sprayed with aqueous solution of 1000 ppm gibberellic acid (GA₃, using Berelex® produced by Valet Bioscience, USA) and 0.025 % Triton® x-100 surfactant (produced by BASF, Germany).
Treatments started on July 15, 2003 (in Israel, N. hemisphere). Treatments were: Control which was sprayed with water and surfactant; Single spray with GA3 and surfactant, only on July 15; Four weekly sprays with GA₃ and surfactant, starting on July 15.
Buds were measured on August 15, one month after treatments started.
Lengths of the buds were: Control – 53 mm, Single spray – 81 mm and Four weekly sprays – 105 mm.
At harvesting time the control flowers were 93 mm long and those receiving four weekly sprays of GA₃ were 121 mm long.
The coloured involucre bracts were also much longer in the GA₃ treated flowers than in the control flowers.
The GA₃ treated flowers were more attractive than the untreated control flowers.
It seems that the vase life of the treated flowers was better than that of the untreated ones.

VII International Protea Research Symposium

J. Ben-Jaacov

Protea ´Pink Ice´, GA₃, flower length, bud spray, involucral bracts

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.716.18