Physiology of Flower Development Stages in Siam Citrus Plants

Abstract

There are some complexities in the physiological process of flowering in Siam orange till the formation of fruits. This is shown by the limited available information about maintaining an already induced flower till fruit formation periods. Threrefore, the aim of this study was to determine the flower development stages in a six-year-old Siam citrus plant flowers till the formation of fruit and to find out its flowering stages, as well as the endogenous role contained in these stages. The study was conducted in Catur Village, Kintamani Subdistrict, Bangli Regency in 2019. The research procedure involved the implementation of randomly selected 70 citrus plants from 36 different types, in the laboratory and on the field. The randomized block design method with one independent variable with 15 replications was used in this research. The identified results from the morphological identification showed the following physiological stages of flowering development: a) Before flower induction, b) Induction c) Flower bud development towards anthesis, d) Flower blooming, which is the stage when blooming or anthesis occurs. In addition, the statistical analysis results between the on-season and off-season periods showed no significant difference during the shoot development in the Siam citrus plants. However, it takes longer time for the shoot development in the off-season compared to the on-season, which was 204.03 days and 172.41 days, respectively.