Five experiments were conducted to determine how nitrogen (N), phosphorus
(P), and potassium (K) rate and fertilizer termination time, duration of N application, and
cold duration and light intensity affect growth and flowering of Dendrobium nobile Red
Emperor ‘Prince’. The N, P, and K experiments were a factorial combination of five
nutrient rates and three termination dates (1 Sept., 1 Oct., and 1 Nov. 2005). N and K
rates were 0, 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg•L-1. Phosphorus rates were 0, 25, 50, 100, and
200 mg•L-1. For all nutrients, terminating fertilization on 1 Oct. or 1 Nov. resulted in
thinner pseudobulbs. Pseudobulbs grew taller as N rate increased, peaking at 100 and
200 mg•L-1. There were interactions between N rate and fertilizer termination time on
all reproductive characteristics. For all fertilizer termination times, flower number
increased once N was applied. When terminated on 1 Nov., 200 and 400 mg•L-1 N
caused a delay for the first flower to reach anthesis. Plants required more days to full
flower when supplied with 200 mg•L-1 N until 1 Oct. All P rates resulted in taller plants
with equally more nodes compared to 0 mg•L-1. For all three termination times, plants
that were not supplied with P bloomed later than those receiving P. Plants produced the
most flowers when P fertilization was terminated on 1 Oct. Plants required fewer days
to reach full flower at the 1 Sept. P termination time. As K rate increased from 0 to 100
mg•L-1, height increased, with no further increase at higher rates. Total flower number
and flowering node number were the lowest at 0 mg•L-1 K. Leaf number increased as N
and K rates increased up to 200 mg•L-1. Nitrogen application did not affect vegetative or
flowering characteristics when one rate was applied at four termination dates. In the last experiment, plants cooled at 10 °C for 2, 4, or 6 weeks with light or 4 weeks in darkness
produced similar higher number of flowers per plant than those cooled in darkness for 2
or 4 weeks or those that remained in a greenhouse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1116 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Bichsel, Rebecca Gayle |
| Contributors | Starman, Terri W., Wang, Yin-Tung |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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