Effects of Seasonal Variation and Gibberellic Acid Treatment on The
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HORTSCIENCE 54(8):1370–1374. 2019. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI14156-19 Kunming is the main production area of Gypsophila paniculata in China, with 28 years of cultivation history (Yang, 2012). Effects of Seasonal Variation and Due to its location (altitude, 1900 m; latitude, 25° N), Kunming has the mildest climate in Gibberellic Acid Treatment on the China (Liang et al., 2017). The perpetual spring-like weather provides ideal growth Growth and Development of conditions for plants, but it is still difficult for Gypsophila paniculata to bloom during Gypsophila paniculata winter because of the low temperatures at night. Usually, the seedlings of Gypsophila Fan Li, Guoxian Wang, Rongpei Yu, Min Wu, Qinli Shan, Lifang Wu, paniculata are planted from March until the Jiwei Ruan1, and Chunmei Yang1 end of August in Kunming; then, they are harvested twice during the forthcoming year. National Engineering Research Center for Ornamental Horticulture, Key If the seedlings are planted after September, Laboratory for Flower Breeding of Yunnan Province, Floriculture Research then the rosette plants will appear. These Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming 650200, China rosette plants are more significant during winter. Few studies have focused on applying Additional index words. flowering regulation, growth regulator, rosette, season, sensitive gibberellins to induce floral stems and pro- Abstract. We investigated the effects of different planting seasons and gibberellic acid voke plant blooming in Gypsophila panicu- treatments on the growth and development of Gypsophila paniculata to explore new lata. Therefore, we examined the seasonal approaches to controlling the flowering period. Four different cultivars were selected and variations in the growth and development of continually planted in July, September, and November in the low-latitude and high- four different cultivars of Gypsophila pan- altitude region of Kunming, China (258 N, 1028 E). Results showed that the vegetative iculata. Our results showed that Gypsoph- growth and flowering time of Gypsophila paniculata were prolonged and postponed when ila paniculata is season-sensitive, and that the planting time was delayed. Specifically, ‘My Pink’ showed 20% and 80% rosette rates some cultivars cannot flower during autumn when grown in autumn and winter, respectively, thus indicating that Gypsophila and winter. To overcome this, we applied growth regulator GA3 to control the growth paniculata is sensitive to planting time. Moreover, GA3 treatment not only can significantly promote vegetative growth but also can stimulate early flowering and and flowering of different cultivars. The suppress the occurrence of rosettes during winter. This is more specific to ‘My Pink’, study showed that two different GA3 treat- ments have positive effects on the vegetative which showed 40% and 80% reductions in rosette rates with four and eight GA3 treatment applications, respectively. Our study showed that seasonal variations in the growth and flowering regulation of Gypsoph- ila paniculata during winter, thus providing a growth and development of Gypsophila paniculata and GA3 treatment can effectively stimulate early flowering and suppress rosettes during winter. simple method of enhancing flower produc- tion. Gypsophila paniculata, a flowering plant plants will stay in the vegetative growth stage Materials and Methods of the Caryophyllaceae family, is a small and form a rosette under short daylighting and perennial herbaceous shrub 1 m tall and lower temperatures (Nishidate et al., 2012). Plant material and growth conditions. 1 m wide (Toaima et al., 2016; Vettori The formation of the rosette significantly Four commercial cultivars of Gypsophila et al., 2015). It is normally characterized by a affects the flower production of Gypsophila paniculata (‘My Pink’, ‘Million Stars’, rosette of grayish green basal leaves and paniculata because these rosette plants cannot ‘Cloudstar 8’, and ‘Cloudstar 5’) (Fig. 1) linear lanceolate from which the flower stems bloom. Therefore, for year-round produc- were selected for this study. ‘My Pink’ and propagate and end in mounds of branching tion of Gypsophila paniculata,specifictech- ‘Million Stars’ are the commercial cultivars stems covered by clouds of tiny white or pink niques such as artificial lighting and heating that were introduced by Danziger, a com- flowers (Atasxlar et al., 2009; Cronquist, are used to provide optimal light and tem- pany in Israel (Moshav Mishmar Hashiva). 1981). Gypsophila paniculata is a famous perature conditions. Although the light can However, ‘Cloudstar 8’ and ‘Cloudstar 5’ ornamental plant that is considered one of the be replaced by an LED source, artificial are specifically bred based on the environ- 10 best-selling cut flower species worldwide heating is energy-consuming during winter. mental conditions of Kunming. The plant (Zvi et al., 2008). Because of its ornamen- To overcome this serious limitation and to seedlings were obtained from Yuxi Yunxing tal value, Gypsophila paniculata has been optimize flower production during winter, Biological Technology Co., Ltd. (Yunnan grown not only for flower arrangements but the application of growth regulators may province, China), and they were separately also as a perennial garden plant (Wang et al., offer an inexpensive and relatively simple planted in pots (diameter, 25 cm; height, 30 2013). method of enhancing flower production by cm) filled with commercial potting medium The flowering behavior of Gypsophila regulating the growth and development of (peat and perlite mixture). Then, all plants paniculata is strongly influenced by growth plants (Rameau et al., 2015). Gibberellic were grown in the greenhouse (without conditions, mainly daylength and temperature acid is considered essential for the develop- heating) during the natural photoperiod (Thakur et al., 2013). It has been reported that ment of stamens and petals (Elfving et al., (Table 1) at the experimental farm of 2011; Ni et al., 2015) because it uses the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. response of the plant reproductive develop- Planting season and GA3 treatment. Seed- ment to environmental stresses, especially lings were continually planted on 1 July, 1 Received for publication 23 Apr. 2019. Accepted unfavorable temperature conditions (Liu Sept., and 1 Nov. to explore the seasonal for publication 23 Apr. 2019. et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2016). More specif- variations in growth and development. Ten Supported by the Science and Technology Program ically, under lower temperatures, gibberel- seedlings of each cultivar were grown during of Yunnan Province (No. 2016IA001) and the Key lin signaling produces the effects of warm each month. Two different GA3 treatments Research and Development (Agricultural field) temperatures, which are essential for the (four applications and eight applications) Project of Yunnan Science and Technology Pro- response to the long-day induction effects were applied to plants that were planted on gram (No. 2018BB010). We thank Dr. Shiyu Ma for assistance with the English language grammar (Lopez and Gonzalez, 2006). Therefore, 1 Nov.; four applications and eight applica- and syntax of this manuscript. gibberellic acid could promote the develop- tions of 125 mg/L GA3 were sprayed during 1 Corresponding authors. E-mail: snruanjiwei@ ment of flowers and help plants bloom under the entire growing season. The GA3 treat- 126.com or [email protected]. low temperatures. ments were started on 1 Dec. at a frequency 1370 HORTSCIENCE VOL. 54(8) AUGUST 2019 of once per week, and each treatment was multiple samples at a significance level of 5% was delayed. Consistent with this, the fresh used for 10 individual plants. (a = 0.05). weight and dry weight exhibited the same Data collection and statistical analysis. increases, but the flowering time was post- During the flowering period, the growth Results poned. From these results, we can conclude parameters, such as plant height, crown that Gypsophila paniculata is sensitive to the width, flowering time, and plant rosette rate, Seasonal variations in growth and devel- planting season, and that vegetative growth of each treatment were measured using a opment for Gypsophila paniculata. We con- will be prolonged when planting is performed ruler and vernier caliper. Then, the entire tinually planted seedlings for 3 months to during autumn and winter. However, seasonal individual plant was collected to measure the explore and simulate the effects of different sensitivity varies in different cultivars. ‘My fresh weight and dry weight using an elec- planting seasons on the growth and develop- Pink’ was the most sensitive to the planting tronic scale. These data were used to evaluate ment of Gypsophila paniculata during the season, exhibiting rosette rates of 20% and the effects of the planting season and GA3 natural photoperiod of a low-latitude and 80% when planted in September and Novem- treatment on the growth and development of high-altitude region. In general, different ber, respectively. ‘Million Stars’ was less each cultivar. Data analysis and statistics planting seasons had a significant impact on sensitive than ‘My Pink’, with a rosette rate were performed using Microsoft Excel 2016 the plant growth of four cultivars (Fig. 2). of only 10% when it was planted in Novem- (Microsoft Corporation) and Data Processing With the delayed planting time, the plant ber. Moreover, two cultivars, ‘Cloudstar 8’ System (Hangzhou Ruifeng Information Tech- height significantly increased,