Research Article

Influence of Various Concentrations of Gibberellic Acid and Micronutrients for Enhancing Growth and Flowering of Tuberose (Polyanthas Tuberosa)

Hamid Ali, Muhammad Arshad, Ibad Ullah Jan, Muhammad Zamin*, Junaid Khan, Ikram Ullah and Mushtaq Ali

Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Received | January 24, 2019; Accepted | March 10, 2019; Published | May 01, 2019

*Correspondence | Muhammad Zamin, Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan; Email: zaminhort@yahoo.com, zaminhort@uoswabi.edu.pk

Citation | Ali, H., M. Arshad, I.U. Jan, M. Zamin, J. Khan, I. Ullah and M. Ali. 2019. Influence of Various Concentrations of Gibberellic Acid and Micronutrients for Enhancing Growth and Flowering of Tuberose (Polyanthas Tuberosa). Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 35(2): 550-556.

DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.sja/2019/35.2.550.556

Keywords | Gibberellic acid, Micro-nutrients, Polyanthus Tuberosa, Rachis length, Flowering

Introduction

Tuberose (Polyanthas tuberosa) belongs to the family Amaryllideceae and originated from Mexico. It is commonly grown in areas near equator /hot and humid subtropical part of the world. It is repeating its life cycle (every year) in nature and grown as cut flower (Feng et al., 2000).

Tuberose has a wide history in the world of perfumery and has been cultivated in the south of France for many years (Anonymous, 2007). Tuberose is very important commercial flower. It is successfully grown as potted plants, in borders or beds and mass plantation for floriculture market. Their white colored floret has very large demand in the markets (Dahiya et al., 2001). The flower is used for its sweet fragrance and its monumental oil plays a vital role in perfume industry.

It is one of the paramount fashionable and mass-market important swollen and bulb like flowers and got a key role in national and global market. Tuberose produces flowers which can be used for many purposes such as cut flower, loose flower and for its nice smelling value. It is red-hot among the farmers due to higher economic return, nice and sweet smell, longer shelf life and adoptability to wide range of climatic conditions and soil types (Tiwari et al., 2002).

The best climatic conditions for Tuberose include open sunny place in tropical and subtropical regions having 20 to 30 C° temperature. It is vulnerable to cold conditions and frequent frost can damage the whole plant or its florets. Tuberose is grown on many types of soils such as light sandy loam to a clay loam and 6.5 to 7.5 pH. However, appropriate aeration and drainage are indispensable for higher production. It is highly susceptible to standing water so water logging conditions should be avoided during the growing stage (Sharga et al., 1994). In addition to the common propagation practice of bulbs, bulblets and seeds, it can be multiplied by bulb-segments and tissue culture. But Reproduction through bulbs is the main source of asexual means of propagation (Mahanta et al., 1999). Instead of fresh bulbs planting, bulb is treated to break its dormancy to get a good deal of flowers. Keeping proper depth during planting of bulbs is very important for saleable cut flowers (Hagiladi et al., 1992). The best planting distance of corm is 2.5-3.5cm while recommended depth is 6.0cm (Hussain, 1999). Ethylene and vascular tissues blockage are the major constraints in maintaining higher vase life. Citric acid and cobalt chloride are used as germicides for enhancing postharvest life of tuberose (Damunpula et al., 2006).

Gibberellic acid is a hormone present in plants and is produced in the plastids of plants cells. When purified, it is a white to pale-yellow solid. By nature, they are acid which are known to be the growth promoter. They are non-soluble in water and soluble in ethanol. Gibberellins need in very minute (ppm) quantity. Since gibberellins increase cell division and elongation, therefore, it also plays important role in increasing plant height and leaves numbers and length (Tyagi et al., 2006). It controls various aspects of plant development and are known to be involved in all phases of the developmental cycle of angiosperms. These growth regulators were discovered because of the dramatic effect they exert on stem growth via effects on cell elongation (Russell et al., 2008). Gibberellins affect photosynthesis and sink formation, thus changing source and sink metabolism. Therefore, they are responsible for improving biological responses (Iqbal et al., 2011). Fertilization through spray techniques are getting more popularity in floriculture industry of the world particularly under the growing conditions where nutrients absorption from soil is limited (Verma et al., 2000).

Nutrients are necessary for the (usual/commonly and regular/ healthy) growth and development of plants and these nutrients have major role in metabolism, growth and involved in enzymatic processes, which in turn helps in increasing the biomass and yield. The elements required in small quantity are termed as micro-nutrients, however, we cannot ignore their role in plants growth, yield and quality but also essential just like major nutrients. In addition to above functions, they help in uptake of major elements as well (Saravaiya et al., 2014). Micronutrients had profound effect in plants height (Wahba et al., 2002). Foliar application of micronutrients on tomato also had significant effect on various agronomic parameters such as plant height, number of branches per plant, fresh and dry yield of plants, days taken to harvesting, fruits produced in a plant, fruit length and diameter, volume and quantity (Saravaiya et al., 2014).

Interaction of Boron with other micro elements and controlling some physiological actions in plants is unique as compared to Zn, Cu Fe, Mn and Mo (Mishra et al., 2002). B and Zn and their combination had extreme effect on flower characters and flower yield of Tuberose (Halder et al., 2007). Studies had revealed that there is beneficial effect of FeSO4 and ZnSO4 on marigold with maximum growth, flowering, yield and quality parameters such as height of plant, its spread, branches and flowers per plant and flowering timing and leaf chlorophyll content (Balakrishnan et al., 2007). It is detected that micronutrients play important role in the yield improvement (Rehm et al., 2006).

Micronutrients help in chlorophyll creation and construction of objects, nucleic acid, protein combination and play an active role in more than two enzymatic activities of food synthesis from light and respiration (Reddy et al., 2004).

Keeping in view the importance of GA3 and micronutrients, the present experiment was designed to evaluate the role of GA3 and micronutrients in enhancing flower quality of tuberose.

Materials and Methods

The pot experiment entitled “Influence of various concentrations of gibberellic acid and micronutrient for enhancing growth and flowering of tuberose” was conducted at University of Swabi, in the year 2018. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 13 treatment combinations, replicated thrice. Nine plants were treated with each treatment and hence total of 128 plants were used.

Preparation of GA3 solution

Gibberellic acid is insoluble in water but soluble in organic substances. So, to make it soluble in water first we dissolve it in ethanol. 50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm and 200 ppm of GA3 solutions were prepared by dissolving 0.050gm, 0.10gm, 0.150gm and 0.20gm GA3 and dissolved in few drops of ethyl alcohol separately and then labeled it. Each solution was diluted with distilled water to make volume up to 1000ml.

Then the stock solutions were prepared for micronutrients of 1000 ppm micronutrients, 2000 ppm micronutrients, 3000 ppm and 4000 ppm micronutrients. Then plant media were prepared with combination of silt, clay and farmyard manure with the ratio of 1:1:1. Then the pots were filled with proper procedure and exposed to sunlight for sterilization. After two days, plants were planted in pots at early morning and irrigated immediately after transplantation. Foliar application of each treatment was done separately. The spray had done twice throughout the entire period of experiment. Uniform management practices like weeding, cleaning, fertilizer application and irrigation were applied to all treatments during the entire period of experiment. Data on various parameters were taken from selected plants during different phases of growth. The data were collected by adopting standard procedure during the conduct of experiments.

The following treatment’s combinations were used:

T1= Control; T2= 50 ppm gibberellic acid; T3= 100 ppm gibberellic acid; T4= 150 ppm gibberellic acid; T5=200 ppm gibberellic acid; T6=1000 ppm micronutrients; T7=2000 ppm micronutrients; T8=3000 ppm micronutrients; T8= 4000 ppm micronutrients; T10= 50 ppm GA3 and 1000 ppm micronutrients; T11= 100 ppm GA3 and 2000 ppm micronutrients; T12 = 150 ppm GA3 and3000 ppm micronutrients; T13 = 200 ppm GA3 and 4000 ppm micronutrients.

The data were recorded on the following guideline.

Plant height: Data on this parameter was taken by measuring tape. The length from bottom to the top of plant is considered plant height which was taken in all treatments and replications.

Number of leaves: The leaves produced in a plot were counted in each replication at the end of season and the average was calculated accordingly.

Spike diameter: Spike diameter was recorded of each tuberose plant at lower site, middle and at the upper site through digital vernier caliper and then average was calculated.

Number of florets: Florets number were counted and recorded in all plants of each treatment at the end of tuberose season and mean were tabulated.

Spike length: The length of the spike was measured in centimeter of each plant in replication through measuring tape and then average was taken.

Riches length: A riches length was measured in the treatments through measuring tape and average was taken at the end of experiment.

Results and Discussion

Plant height (cm)

According to Figure 1 where the data pertaining to plant height is given, GA3 and micronutrients had significant effect on plant height of tuberose. Treatments having 150 ppm gibberellin and 3000 ppm micronutrients produced the tallest plants (53.21cm) followed by plants (52.07 cm) with 150 ppm GA3 alone while the least plant height (39.1cm) was observed in control plants.

There is direct correlation of plant height with GA3 and micronutrients. These results are matching with the data obtained by Abdallah et al. (2013), who also reported the tallest plants with higher dose of GA3 and micronutrients. Plant height was increased at the application of growth promoters and micro nutrients which might be due to enhancement of cell in terms of division and elongation occurring at shoot tips and this effect was due to increase in photosynthetic efficiency, improvement in mobilization of photosynthates, rapid increase in reducing sugars which leads to change in membrane permeability (Shukla et al., 1997).

Table 1 indicates that maximum number of leaves (16.34) was observed in plants treated with 150 ppm gibberellic acid and 3000 ppm micronutrients, followed by plants (15.01) with 150 ppm GA3 while the least plant height (11.22) was observed in control plants (Figure 2). GA3 and phosphorus plays important role in plant leaves development and plants treated with GA3 and phosphorus produce highest leaves. Gibberellic acid and micronutrients have a positive effect on vegetative growth as it has a great role in promoting cambial activity, cell elongation as well as activating RNA and protein synthesis (Naggar et al., 2009; Kashif et al. 2014).

Data pertaining to spike length revealed that significant differences were found among GA3 levels and micronutrients in combination or solely on spike length of tuberose. Maximum plant height (77.8 cm) was observed in plants, treated with 150 ppm gibberellins and 3000 ppm micronutrients followed by plants (52.07 cm) with 150 ppm GA3 while the least plant height (39.1 cm) was observed in control plants (Table 1 and Figure 3). Ganesh et al. (2013) also observed the longest spike length in tuberose plants treated with GA3 and micronutrients. The increase in spike length might be due to GA3 which is responsible for cell division, cell enlargement and vegetative growth, in turn increased the photosynthetic and metabolic activities in plants which results into transport and utilization of photosynthetic products (Maurya and Nagda, 2002).

Analysis of variance regarding spike diameter of tuberose in Table 1 clearly indicated that the highest diameter was recorded in plants (7.51 cm) treated with 150 ppm GA3 and 3000 ppm micronutrients followed by plants received 200 ppm GA3 while the minimum spike diameter was recorded in control plot (Figure 4). These results are in conformity with Ganesh et al. (2013). Since GA3 is increasing the efficiency of plants in terms of photosynthetic activity, enhancing nutrients uptake, nutrients translocation and improving its mobilization, thus GA3 might be increased the spike.

Number of florets

Data pertaining to number of florets in a spike (Figure 5) show that there is significant difference among treatments. The highest number of florets (25.27) were rcorded in treatment T12 (gibbrelin+micronutrients

Table 1: Influence of GA3 and micronutrients concentrations on various parameters of tuberose (Polyanthas tuberosa).

levels of 150 ppm+3000 ppm respectively) while the minimum number of florets (19.3) were observed in treatment T1. The floret number is an important parameter regarding production of tuberose plant. The better flowers production in terms of large number of florets might be due to the proper combination of gibberellic acid and micronutrients. Thus, the accelerated growth leading to increased plant height, higher leaves, better spike diameter and length was found in Treatment T12 which led to increased florets produced in a spike as compared to all other treatments. Naggar et al. (2009) also collected matching data in Carnation and Sindhu and Verma (1997) in gladiolus.

Rachis length

Analysis of variance regarding rachis length of Tuberose depicted significant differences among treatments as given in Figure 6 and analysis of variation is shown in Table 1. The maximum rachis length (16.1 cm) were observed in treatment T12 while the minimun rachis length (12.8 cm) were observed in treatment T1. The rachis length was signifacantly affected by gebberellic acid and micronutrients alone or in combination. The same results were revealed by Sultana et al. (2016) who found significant effect of GA3 on rachis length. GA3 has a key role in vegetative growth and in improving photosynthetic and metabolic activities of plants. Thus, taller plants were produced that lead to taller spike and rachis as well due to GA3and micronutrients which stimulated the conversion of storage polymers into sucrose or mobile amino acids to facilitate their translocation via vascular bundles to various parts such as root and shoot system and dry matter accumulation thus influencing higher Rachis length.

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