Short communication. Paclobutrazol for height control of two Lilium L.A. hybrids grown in pots

Abstract

Height control is often required in order to obtain bulb plants that are proportional to their pot size and to reduce post-harvest stem elongation. Plant growth regulators afford an effective means of controlling plant height. In this study, paclobutrazol (Pbz) was studied for use in the chemical dwarfing of potted Lilium plants -the hybrids "Ercolano" and "Royal Respect"- for marketing. Their bulbs were dipped in the growth regulator (0, 50, 100, and 150 ppm) for 10 min before planting. Plant height (measured at 7 day intervals), the duration of the different stages of the growth cycle, the number of flower buds formed, and the number of open and aborted flowers were recorded. The average day and night air temperatures were 25 and 13 deg C, respectively. Increasing Pbz dose progressively reduced the height of the "Ercolano" hybrid by between 29% (46.2 cm; 50 ppm) and 45% (35.3 cm; 150 ppm) compared to control plants (64.4 cm), however, neither the duration of flowering nor the number of flowers was modified. The "Royal Respect" hybrid responded with a marked shortening - by 45% (20.8 cm; 50 ppm) to 59% (28.2 cm; 150 ppm) in comparison with the average control height (51.1 cm), but in this case both the duration of flowering and the number of open flowers was reduced at the highest concentration. The feasibility of cultivating these Lilium hybrids for marketing in pots is demonstrated. However, the concentration of paclobutrazol should be adjusted according to the hybrid grown.

Potted rose cultivars with paclobutrazol drench applications

“…It is registered in Europe and North America (GROSSI et al, 2009). Compact plants with suitable height for commercialization in pots are obtained after applying PBZ to species like cloves, zinnia, iris, lily and sunflower (PINTO et al, 2005;AL-KHASSAWNEH et al, 2006;FRANCESCANGELI et al, 2007;BARBOSA et al, 2009).…”

Blackout Reduces Height of Easter Lily but End-of-day Red Light Treatment Using Light-emitting Diodes Does Not

“…eight control is crucial for easter lily (Lilium longiflorum) production to attain acceptable aesthetics and to enable shipping to retailers in standard-sized boxes. To manage plant height, easter lily growers have commonly relied on plant growth regulators (PGRs) (Francescangeli et al, 2007;Jiao et al, 1986;Wulster et al, 1987) and temperature control (Blom and Kerec, 2003;Erwin and Heins, 1995;Erwin et al, 1989;Wilfret, 1987). Nonchemical methods of controlling height are increasingly becoming desirable alternatives for height control as PGRs face increasing environmental concerns and tighter regulations (Bergstrand, 2017).…”

Application of Plant Growth Regulators in Ornamental Plants: A Review

“…The PGRs has been applied to alter various characteristics in ornamental plant including the increase or reduction in plant height (Christopher and Lopez, 2010;Francescangeli et al, 2007), increase compactness in plants (Meijon et al, 2009;Rademacher, 1991), an increase in number of flowers (Sajjad et al, 2014;Carey et al, 2013), early flowering (Cardosol et al, 2010;Khaimov and Mizrahi, 2006), increase in number of lateral shoots (Wroblewska and Debicz, 2013;Witomska et al,2010), delay in flowering (Taha, 2012), control of sex ratio in flowers (Gayakvad et al, 2014), delayed senescence (Chang et al, 2003;Duan et al, 2006), increase flower life (Khandaker et al, 2013;Gulzar et al, 2005), induce systemic acquired resistance against diseases (Darras et al, 2011;Dinh et al, 2007), resistance against pathogen (Pozo et al, 2005;Jameson and Clarke, 2002), breaking dormancy (Gashi et al, 2012;Guleryuz et al, 2011), reduce the vernalization requirement (Wang and Walter, 2006), improve seed germination (Rehman and Park, 2000;Khan et al, 2004) and increase vase life (Gholami et al, 2011;Iqbal et al, 2012).…”