Senecio grisebachii, its cultivate and behavior as decorative cut flower
FLORICULTURE | Fatta, N. - Saito, M. - Mizuno, M. - Dechima, J.
Tags: Root growing hormone, nipping, vase life, light, Asteraceae
Although Senecio grisebachii exhibits attractive blossoms and long resistant floral stalks, its decorative use has not been yet developed. For this reason, experimental tests were implemented to assess the impact of different treatments on vase life, stature or stalk length, blossoming rate and number of days since planting to blossoming (DAF) for a population of genetically identical individuals. For the 2005 experiment, treated and non treated cuttings with and without root growing hormones from mother plants in 3 liter pots were tested. The plants remained under greenhouse facilities with and without cyclic lightingduring the night. The features studied were, length of the floral stalks, vase life DAF and daily flower bud opening. Treatments with additional light showed less DAF and duration in the flower pot. From 6, 14, 20, 23 and 28 October and 1 November dates, flower buds that opened in the flower pot were cut, finding significant differences between treatments in every case. Stalk length showed the effect of light and the hormone; by the other hand an interaction between both variables was detected with longer stalks in those plants exposed to light at night which had not been treated with hormone or nipped. The conclusion was that lighting during the night, is an appropriate practice to produce good sized floral stalks with commercial value. The treatment with light and no root growing hormone or nipping (L2SPSH) appeared very promising since it produced mature stalks early with less resource input. The suggestion is that S. grisebachii would be produced utilizing standard facilities, management and practices to obtain traditional cut flowers.