Journal of Soil and Plant Interactions

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An experiment was carried out to compare the vase life and factors affecting the longevity of 10 cut rose cultivars imported to Iran. The vase lives of these cut rose cultivars were compared in preservative solution containing hydroxyquinoline citrate (HQC) plus sucrose. Results showed that there was significant difference among cultivars in vase life, time of flowering, water uptake, evaporation rate, ethylene production and carbohydrate content. Maroussia flowers had the longest vase life (18.3 days) and ‘Black magic’ had the shortest vase life (7.6 days). Cultivars with longer vase life had higher concentrations of soluble carbohydrates (fructose, glucose and sucrose) in petals as compared with cultivars that had shorter vase life. Also, short-lived cultivars produced higher ethylene rate than long-lived cultivars.

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Nowadays, stress management is considered to be very important in landscapes. The present research was conducted to investigate the effects of regulated deficit irrigation at 4 levels (25, 50, 75 and 100% of lawn irrigation requirement) on some biochemical indices of four groundcover plants (Lolium perenne, Potentilla spp, Trifolium repens and Frankinia spp) to be used in landscapes, with 3 replications. Results showed that Frankinia spp had the highest proline content (0.84 mg/g fresh weight) and the lowest chlorophyll content (15.9 mg/g fresh weight), the 75% stress treatment had the highest proline content (0.84 mg/g fresh weight) and control treatment had the highest chlorophyll content (32.6 mg/g fresh weight). For total carbohydrates, the highest and the lowest amounts (1.54 and 0.79 mg/g fresh weight) belong to Lolium perenne and Trifolium repens, respectively. Also, among the species, Trifolium repens showed the highest antioxidant activity (75.05%). In general, regulated deficit irrigation affected different biochemical characteristics of the examined groundcover plants significantly. But, applying it up to the damaging point for landscape plants can be an important management strategy for reduction of water consumption in green spaces.

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Biofertilizers are important sources for plants' supplementing nutrition program, which have significant effect on reduction of costs and adverse effects of mineral fertilizers on the environment. This research was conducted as two different experiments. In experiment 1, effect of biofertilizer (0, 1 and 1.5 L nitroxin/ 500 m2), paclobutrazol (0, 25 and 50 mg/L) with/without pinching, and in experiment 2, effect of biofertilizer (0, 1 and 1.5 L nitroxin per 500 m2) and nitrogen fertilizer (0, 200 and 300 mg/L urea) were studied on some morphophysiological characteristics of Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum frutescence). Both experiments were arranged as factorial based on a completely randomized design with three replications. In experiment 1, maximum stem height (38.14 cm) was recorded in 1.5 L nitroxin without paclobutrazol and pinching. The 1.5 L nitroxin + 25 mg/L paclobutrazol treatment showed the highest values of number of flowers, fresh and dry weight of shoots, fresh and dry weight of flower and number of shoots. Also, the highest amount of chlorophyll a and b, carotenoides, total soluble carbohydrates and protein content was obtained in this treatment. Plant height, number of flowers and number of shoots were reduced significantly with increasing paclobutrazol concentration from 25 to 50 mg/L. Application of paclobutrazol significantly decreased plant height and increased plant width as compared to pinching. In experiment 2, better growth rate, flowering and physiological characteristics were obtained by application of biofertilizer and urea together, as compared to using them alone. The highest number of shoots and flower per plant, highest values of chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids, total soluble carbohydrate and protein content were obtained in 1.5 L nitroxin /500 m2 + 200 mg/L urea treatment. Number of flowers was significantly increased by extension of plant width. According to the results of the second experiment, nitroxin biofertilizer could reduce application of mineral nitrogen consumption in Chrysanthemum frutescence

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One of the signs of climate change is variation of the amount of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. It is expected that addition of carbon dioxide could affect on radiation-energy balance and thus change global climate. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of CO₂ enrichment on leaf characteristics and change in pigments of two varieties of Eustoma grandiflorum cut flower under hydroponic conditions. The experiment was carried out as split plots, based on completely randomized design with three replications, in Research Greenhouse of College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. Treatments consisted of three concentrations of carbon dioxide (380 as control, 750 and 1050 mg/L) as main plot and two cultivars of lisianthus cut flower (Yodel White and GCREC-Blue) as subplot. Results of analysis of variance showed that only the simple effect of CO₂ treatment was significant on number of leaves, carbohydrate, and carotenoids at 5% probability level and on other traits at 1% probability level. Interaction effect of cultivar and CO₂ was only significant on anthocyanin content (p<0.01). In general, with increasing the CO₂ concentration from 380 to 1050 mg/L, the number of leaves increased by 86%, leaf area (27%), carbohydrate content (64%), carotenoids (2.43%), anthocyanin (13.67%) and total chlorophyll (0.9 %), whereas, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll a and b showed reducing trend.

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