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EFFECT OF CHITOSAN ON PLANT GROWTH, FLOWERING AND CORMS YIELD OF POTTED
 
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Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Papieża Pawła VI 3, 71-459 Szczecin, Poland
 
 
Publication date: 2014-07-01
 
 
J. Ecol. Eng. 2014; 15(3):97-102
 
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ABSTRACT
The research was aimed at determining the influence of chitosan with different molecular weights on the growth and yield of flowers and corms of ‘Gompey’ freesia cultivated in pots. Freesia corms were soaked for 20 minutes in 0.5% chitosan solutions with low molecular weight (2 kDa), medium molecular weight (50 kDa) and high molecular weight (970 kDa). The average deacetylation level of the chitosans used was 85%. The plants were cultivated under controlled conditions (18/16 °C day/night, relative air humidity of 60%, quantum irradiance of 90 μmol∙m-2∙s-1 with a light/dark cycle of 14/8 hours). The research results obtained have shown that chitosan is used as a biostimulator in the cultivation of potted freesia. Regardless of the molecular weight of the compound, the chitosan-treated plants had more leaves and shoots, flowered earlier, formed more flowers and corms. The application of medium- and high-molecular-weight chitosan resulted in higher plants with a higher relative chlorophyll content (SPAD). The highest increase in the corm weight was observed as a result of treating plants with high-molecular-weight chitosan. No chitosan influence on the length of the main inflorescence shoot or the inflorescence length was observed.
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