The effect of photoperiod and gibberellic acid on strawberry F. vesca var. semperflorens (Baron Solemacher cultivar) [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

This experiment was conducted at the greenhouse facility of the Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Helsinki, Finland, from December, I5t \ 2006 till August, 20t \ 2007 to determine the effects of day length, short day (SD, 8 hours) or long day (LD, 16 hours) and gibberellic acid treatments (GA3 0, 1, 5, 25 μg/L) on the vegetative and reproductive growth of the runnerless mutant type of strawberry F. vesca var. semperjlorens (Baron Solemacher, a day-neutral type). The results indicated that all plants developed longer petioles under LD conditions. Under SD conditions, a direct relationship was noted between GA3 concentration and petiole length. Plants grown under SD conditions developed more side crowns. A direct relationship was found between the number of runners and the increasing GA3 concentrations with the control treatment producing no runners. LD treatment increased the runner length. Increasing GA3 concentrations increased the number of daughter plants and the length of internodes. Both SD and higher GA3 concentrations decreased the total number of inflorescences. SD resulted in a significantly more flowers in the first inflorescence than LD, whereas plants grown under LD conditions flowered earlier. SD increased the fruit number in the first inflorescence while GA3 decreased their number. Moreover, the SD-treated plants yielded more fruit weight in the first inflorescence than those grown under LD. In conclusion, GA3 treatment promoted the petiole length, number and length of runners, and the length of internodes, simulating the effect of LD conditions. However, the day length treatment influenced strawberry sensitivity to GA3 treatment.

Summary in Arabic.

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