Benzyladenine sprays and senescent flowers removal on postproduction performance of Potted zinnia 'Profusion cherry'

'Profusion Cherry' is a dwarf zinnia with prospect for pot use in Brazil. The success of flowering potted plants depends on its performance during transport and on the period of time that it performs well indoors. Benzyladenine application may retard leaf and flower senescence, increasing postproduction longevity and quality. Senescent flowers removal by consumers, to give a fresh appearance to home flowering potted plant, could influence source-sink relationship and postproduction. This study evaluated the effect of benzyladenine and senescent flowers removal on postproduction performance of 'Profusion Cherry', and observed the senescence symptoms. When plants, produced in greenhouse at São Paulo State, Brazil, had 4 to 5 open flowers, they were sprayed to runoff a single time (20ml/pot) with benzyladenine (0.4, 0.6, 0.8 or 1.0 mmol) and placed into plastic trays, without sleeve. The experimental design was a randomized blocks with 6 treatments (control, four benzyladenine concentrations and senescent flowers removal), 4 replications (2 pots per experimental unit), totalising 12 potted plants in each plastic tray (block). To simulate highway transport, plants remained for 4 days in a dark chamber, at 20.0 °C without irrigation. To include vibration, each plastic tray, was placed in an incubator shaker for 3hr a day, at 60 rpm, 25°C and darkness. After simulated transport, plants remained indoors (10h.day-1 with 18 μmol.m-2.s-1 PPF, 21.5 to 27.0°C and, 14 h.day-1 at darkness, 18.5 to 24.0°C) during 21 days. Plants performed well during simulated transport, and also indoors for two weeks. For most of evaluated parameters there was not significant effect of benzyladenine concentrations by Tukey's test. Senescent flowers removal did not delayed senescence or improved plants quality. The symptoms associated with the loss of decorative life were ray florets color fading and wilting, without abscission of flowers or petals.

The use of the carbon-13 in the partitioning of photosynthate in vegetative and reproductive twigs of 'Sweet' passion fruit

This study's objective is to evaluate the photosynthates partitioning and source-sink relationships, in vegetative and reproductive twigs of sweet passion fruit, using the carbon-13, stable isotope of carbon. The leaves of vegetative and reproductive twigs were placed in a sealed chamber and 13CO 2 were injected for 30 minutes. After six hours, the different organs of the twig were collected and immersed in liquid nitrogen (-196°C). All plant samples were oven-dried, powdered and combusted in an elemental analyzer. The results showed that the methodology was efficient to evaluate the partitioning of photosynthates. In the vegetative twigs, the new open leaves, the closed leaves and growth meristem were the principal sink for the source leaves enriched with 13CO 2. In the reproductive twigs with only flowers buds, the source-sink relationship was changed and the flowers buds turn to be the principal sink and the growing leaves were secondary sinks. The presence of young fruits changed again the source-sink relationship of the twig, and they were the principal sinks. The apical leaves, with 60% of final leaf area were also a sink for photosynthates.

Desempenho agronômico de híbridos de milho em diferentes arranjos populacionais em Jaboticabal-SP

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Uso do carbono-13 como marcador na partição de fotoassimilados em maracujazeiro doce (Passiflora alata Dryander)

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Horticultura) - FCA

Seasonal effects on the relationship between photosynthesis and leaf carbohydrates in orange trees

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Comportamento produtivo do trigo em função da densidade de semeadura e da aplicação de reguladores vegetais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Componentes produtivos do trigo afetados pela densidade de semeadura e aplicação de regulador vegetal

Improvement on yield potential of plants by crop management is the main research challenge due to the growing of food demand worldwide. The objective of this work was to study physiological and morphological traits and its relationship with yield components and yield of wheat as affected by sowing densities and plant growth regulators. The experimental design was a split-plot design with four replications. The plots were consisted by four sowing densities ( 30, 50 70 and 90 plants m(-1)) and the subplots were consisted by plant growth regulators [control, (IBA+GA+KT), Trinexapac-Ethyl e (IBA+GA+KT) + Trinexapac-Ethyl]. Dry matter accumulation, plant height, source-sink distance, gas exchange and yield were determined. Trinexapac-Ethyl application resulted in decreasing of plant height, source-sink distance and flag leaf length; however, the grain yield was not affected. The number of plants per unit area affected dry matter accumulation. Higher dry matter accumulation showed direct relationship with yield and yield components in lower plant densities.

Growth and photosynthetic down-regulation in Coffea arabica in response to restricted root volume

Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) plants were grown in small (3-L), medium (10-L) and large (24-L) pots for 115 or 165 d after transplanting (DAT), which allowed different degrees of root restriction. Effects of altered source : sink ratio were evaluated in order to explore possible stomatal and non-stomatal mechanisms of photosynthetic down-regulation. Increasing root restriction brought about large and general reductions in plant growth associated with a rising root : shoot ratio. Treatments did not affect leaf water potential or leaf nutrient status, with the exception of N content, which dropped significantly with increasing root restriction even though an adequate N supply was available. Photosynthesis was severely reduced when plants were grown in small pots; this was largely associated with non-stomatal factors, such as decreased Rubisco activity. At 165DAT contents of hexose, sucrose, and amino acids decreased in plants grown in smaller pots, while those of starch and hexose-P increased in plants grown in smaller pots. Photosynthetic rates were negatively correlated with the ratio of hexose to free amino acids, but not with hexose content. Activities of acid invertase, sucrose synthase, sucrose-P synthase, fructose-1,6- bisphosphatase, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, starch phosphorylase, glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase, PPi : fructose-6-P 1-phosphotransferase and NADP : glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase all decreased with severe root restriction. Glycerate-3-P : Pi and glucose-6-P : fructose-6-P ratios decreased accordingly. Photosynthetic down-regulation was unlikely to have been associated directly with an end-product limitation, but rather with decreases in Rubisco. Such a down-regulation was largely a result of N deficiency caused by growing coffee plants in small pots.

Determinação de fósforo microbiano: comparação entre métodos e coberturas florestais

Muitos trabalhos mostram a importância da biomassa microbiana do solo (BMS), principalmente como fonte/dreno de C e de N em plantações florestais; contudo, são escassos os trabalhos relacionados ao fósforo microbiano (PBM), sobretudo aqueles relativos aos métodos de determinação do PBM nesses ecossistemas. O presente trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de avaliar métodos de determinação do PBM em solo com diferentes coberturas vegetais. O trabalho consistiu da análise de amostras de Latossolo Vermelho-Amarelo distrófico muito argiloso (LVAd) localizado no município de Viçosa (MG), coletadas nas profundidades de 0 a 5 e 5 a 10 cm, em áreas com as seguintes coberturas vegetais: pínus (Pinus taeda), eucalipto (Eucalyptus grandis) e floresta nativa. Para determinação do P microbiano, foram empregados os métodos fumigação-extração (FE), irradiação com micro-ondas-extração (IE) e irradiação com micro-ondas-extração com membrana de troca aniônica (EMTA). em termos gerais, menores teores de PBM foram obtidos com o método irradiação-extração. Considerando a cobertura vegetal, foi detectada diferença significativa entre os três métodos sob floresta de eucalipto e floresta nativa, principalmente na camada superficial. Sob pínus, apenas o método IE diferiu dos demais, na camada subsuperficial. Menores coeficientes de variação (CV) foram obtidos com o FE, retratando maior precisão do método. Entretanto, o método IE mostrou-se, em termos operacionais, o mais adequado à determinação do PBM quando se tem maior número de amostras. Com relação às coberturas vegetais, a grande variabilidade observada nos CVs obtidos para cada cobertura, nos três métodos testados, inviabiliza a escolha de um único método que apresente maior precisão na avaliação do PBM.

Variação sazonal da fotossíntese, condutância estomática e potencial da água na folha de laranjeira 'Valência'

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Alocação de fotoassimilados marcados e relação fonte-dreno em figueiras cv. Roxo de Valinhos. 1. Relação fonte e dreno

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Características morfoagronômicas do milho submetido a diferentes níveis de desfolha manual

The present study was conducted to evaluate the damage caused by defoliation in maize. The experiment was carried out in 2005/2006 at Roma Farm, Ituverava-SP, using the triple hybrid CODETEC 304®. The experiment consisted of split plots (split-plot), which were distributed at random in three blocks, with the main treatment manual defoliation (30%, 40%, 60% and 80% defoliation) in the plots and as the secondary treatment the phenological phases (D1, D2 and D3) with three replicates for each treatment and a control plot (0% defoliation) for each block. It was evaluated the production of plots (g/m2), the average size of the spikes (cm) and the average weight of thousand grains (g). According to the results, it was concluded that the source-sink relations were negatively affected, and the treatment with 80% defoliation was the one that most affected all variables, thus, it is a level of defoliation that is responsible for the largest losses, with no means of compensation for the maize crop.

Germinação de sementes de algodoeiro provenientes de plantas submetidas a diferentes densidades larvais do curuquerê-do-algodoeiro

The cotton crop yield is directly associated with the efficient control of pests. This work evaluated the relationship of different densities of A. argillacea per plant at different cotton plant ages with seed germination of four cotton cultivars: IAC 25, Delta Opal, Fibermax 993, and Fibermax 966. A randomized block design was set up in 4x3 factorial with four replications. Densities of larvae per plant (0, 2, 4, and 6 larvae) was the major factor while plant ages (30, 60 and 90 days after emergency - DAE) the second level factor. Larvae were released on plants with 30, 60 and 90 DAE. The seeds were manually picked, for the evaluation of the germination in the laboratory using the seed viability through sand emergency method. The results showed that studied cotton cultivars differently to defoliate caused by A. argillacea larvae; the cotton development stage had more influence in the physiologic quality of the seeds than the defoliation; the germination is negatively affected when the defoliation took place at 60 DAE.

Utilização do carbono-13 como marcador na partição de fotoassimilados em figueira

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)