EFFECT OF POTASSIUM DOSES ON NUTRITION AND QUALITY OF STATICE ()

H. AKAT1, B. ÇOLAK ESETLİLİ2, H. ALTUNLU1, S. KÖŞKEROĞLU3, İ. YOKAŞ1, R. KILINÇ2

1Muğla University, Ortaca Vocational Scholl, Muğla, TURKEY. 2Ege University, Agriculture Faculty, Department of Soil Science, İzmir, TURKEY. 3Muğla University, Science and Art Faculty, Deparment of Biology, Muğla, TURKEY. INTRODUCTION

Limonium is a genus of 120 species. Members are also known as Sea Lavender, Statice, or Marsh-. Limonium is in , the plumbago or leadwort family. Despite their common names, species are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary. The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution in , , , and . By far the greatest diversity (over 100 species) is in the area stretching from east through the Mediterranean region to central Asia; for comparison, North America only has 3 native species. Limonium sinuatum is a perennial ornamental plant and used in landscape studies and cut flower marketing all over the world with a special interest. Because of the attractive colours it is used in landscaping and because of the homogeneous shoots it is used also in bouquet and flower arrangments. But it is also so useful in dry flowering because of its very long vase life. Although the mother land of statice is Mediterranean area, it is also cultivated either in South and North Hemisphere. The reason of this non-selective situation Limonium sinuatum can easily adaptate hot, cold and dry climate conditions. Cultivation of statice can easily done all kind of soils except clay soils (Anonymous,2008; www.Hilverdakooij.nl). Limonium species are not well known in Turkey, but as halophyte and ornamental they have very high economic income. For example; in USA it has 512 million dolars of trade volume (Census of Horticultural pecialiallites, 1998). Limonium cultivation, under Turkey’s climate and soil conditions, will provide an important contribution to the country's economy. For this purpose studies are required to improve yield and quality. As it is well known, potassium has a special importance in plant nutrition and also has very important functions in plants such as regulation of water-salt balance and stomatal movements, increase enzyme activity, enhance disease resistance and increase the speed of photosynthesis (Beringer, 1980). Above mentioned functions have a great importance especially for the halophyte plants and that ‘s why potassium fertilization is very important in Limonium species. But in our country, fertilization of Limonium species is not studied. The aim of this study is to find out the effect of potassium doses on the uptake of plant nutrients and quality of blue and white coloured Limonium sinuatum. In this way, several basic data of potassium fertilization for the Limonium species have been carried out. MATERIAL AND METHOD

Plant materials in the study are white flowered Limonium sinuatum compindi white and blue flowered Limonium sinuatum compindi light blue. were seeded at 02.03.2010 and transplanted into viols one week later. Growing media is 1:1:1 ratio of peat, perlite and sand (Yokaş, 2003). Plants were planted to the 1.7 liter pots at 09.04.2010. Pot experiment were established in the open area garden of Mugla University, Ortaca Vocational Scholl by randomized plots experiment designed in three replications. Potassium doses were applied as 0-60-120- 180-240 kg/da. Out of potassium, ½ diluted Hoagland solution were applied once a time in every week. Last harvest for this study was made at 16.07.2010. Quality analysis was made according to Yokaş (2003), N contents by Kjeldahl, P by colorimetric, K, Ca, Mg by flamephotometric methods and trace elements were carried out by atomic adsorbsion spectrometer. Statistical analysis of the results were made by the Taris program (Açıkgöz, 1993). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Commercially, statice has an important role in cut flower trade and also as a halophyte, it is widely use as fresh and dry flower in marketing. There are many studies on Limonium as a halophyte, but very few studies can be found about its fertilization. This is because the economic importance of halophytes in marketing not considered sufficiently. In this study the relationship between K doses and quality criteria and also macro-micro element contents were carried out. Additionally correlation coefficients of above mentioned parameters were also investigated.

The effects of K doses on white and blue Limonium sinuatum plants quality criteria is given in Table 1. White Limonium sinuatum Blue Limonium sinuatum

K doses Dry Number Number Stem Stem Dry Number Number Stem Stem (kg/da) Matter of of flower length diameter Matter of leaves of flower length diameter (g) per plant (cm) (cm) (g) per plant (cm) (cm)

0 1.49 33.7 3.4 24.9 2.2 1.61 17.8 1.0 19.7 2.1

60 1.85 40.3 4.3 25.4 2.2 1.73 20.0 1.6 19.8 2.4

120 2.20 39.1 4.0 32.3 2.5 1.61 18.6 1.2 26.5 2.6

180 1.26 30.2 6.6 27.4 2.5 1.90 17.9 1.6 20.0 3.3

240 1.34 29.0 4.8 26.0 2.4 2.4 20.2 1.0 22.7 2.6

Table 1: The effects of K doses on quality criteria of White and Blue Limonium sinuatum plants. As can be seen from the table the response of both species are quite different. In white species number of , stem lenght, and stem diameter has minimum values, but in blue species all values are minimum in control doses. In comparison to above mentioned values, in Limonium sinuatum compindi white all maximum quality criteria values are around 120 kg/da doses, but in Limonium sinuatum compindi light blue, the values are around 180 and 240 kg/da doses. Due to short time observations in this study the blue species is more stabil and regular in comparison to the white species. It is estimated that at the end of the project the both species will be more consistent. The effects of K doses on the nutritional status of Limonium sinuatum compindi white and blue are shown in Table 2 and 3.

K doses N P K Ca Mg Fe Cu Zn Mn Na (kg/da) % % % % % ppm ppm ppm ppm %

0 2.2 0.32 5.9 3.0 1.8 354 3.5 145 1.4 0.3

60 2.9 0.28 6.8 3.7 1.7 643 5.8 142 1.2 0.4

120 2.3 0.24 5.9 2.7 1.5 543 4.8 149 1.1 0.3

180 3.2 0.30 8.1 3.6 2.1 766 4.3 93 1.3 0.4

240 2.2 0.33 7.5 3.6 1.9 448 3.1 43 1.1 0.4

Table 2: The effects of K doses on macro and micro element contents of White Limonium sinuatum. K doses N P K Ca Mg Fe Cu Zn Mn Na (kg/da) % % % % % ppm ppm ppm ppm %

0 2.1 0.3 4.9 2.2 1.7 619 3.6 46.1 0.4 0.4

60 2.5 0.3 6.4 2.6 1.7 473 4.2 64.2 0.4 0.5

120 2.4 0.3 6.4 2.6 1.5 328 3.4 47.8 0.3 0.4

180 3.0 0.3 6.4 2.4 1.5 495 5.6 42.2 0.4 0.4

240 2.3 0.3 7.4 2.4 1.6 705 3.0 34.1 0.4 0.4

Table 3: The effects of K doses on macro and micro element contents of Blue Limonium sinuatum. As can be seen from the tables 2 and 3, the effect of K doses on macro and micro element contents is not significantly different. It is because Hoagland solution application were done in the experiment once in a week. Probably this Hoagland solution application shaded the effect of the K doses in this short time. On the other hand, K contents increase significantly due to K doses. The correlation coefficients between the measured parameters are given in Table 4.

VARIABLES Correlation Coefficient VARIABLES Correlation Coefficient

K Doses-Stem diameter 0.413* Mn-Number of flower 0.681**

K Doses-K content 0.528** Mn- Stem length 0.481**

Number of -Number of 0.501** Mn-Number of flower 0.540** flower Stem length-Number of leaf 0.585** Mn-Number of leaf 0.681**

P-Number of leaf -0.415* Mn-Number of flower 0.540**

P-Plant K 0.412** Mn-Stem length 0.481**

Mg-K 0.507** Ca-Number of leaf 0.452*

Zn-Number of leaf 0.709** Ca-Number of flower 0.452*

Zn-Number of flower 0.535** Ca-Zn 0.644**

Zn-Na 0.563** Ca-Mn 0.377*

Table 4: The correlation coefficients between quality criteria and element contents in respect to K doses. As can be seen from the table significant correlations were found between K doses and stem diameter and also plant K content. Increase in the number of leaf also increased the number of flowers and the increase in stem lenght increased number of leaf significantly. The possible reason of this result is more photosynthesis. Highly significant correlations between quality criteria and Zn, Mn and also Ca were found remarkable. These results pointed out that in the fertilization of Limonium sinuatum these 3 elements should not be ignored. Due to todays accelerating global warming, Limonium sinuatum can easily be used in arid and saline areas as a very valuable halophytes. Even the EC value of irrrigation water reaches to 30 dS/m, the life circle of Limonium sinuatum can continue without any problem (Cartel et all., 2006). Under above conditions Limonium sinuatum also taking place in flower marketing as valuable cut flower and dry flower. Such kind of economically important halophytes have to study more either in arid, semiarid and saline soils of Turkey. Statice (Limonium sinuatum) has gained importance in ornamental plants as a really resistant plant. For the above mentioned purpose, in addition to salinity and drought studies, fertilization and nutrient interactions must be studied for the cultivation of statice.