Impatiens ‘New Guinea’ (Impatiens hawkeri Bull) Hormonal Effects during the Post-transplant Biomass Accumulation

Fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (F-AFLP) and microsatellites (SSRs) were used to evaluate new guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri W. Bull) cultivars. Ninety-five quality-selected polymorphic fragments from 10 F-AFLP+3 primer combinations were used to evaluate 100 cultivars representing a variety of colors, forms, and breeding programs. Jaccard similarities and unweighted pair-group method of the arithmetic average (UPGMA) clustering formed a dendrogram with three cultivar groups, to a large extent clustering the cultivars by breeder with a high cophenetic correlation coefficient. A small insert genomic library was created and 442 kb of new guinea impatiens sequence was screened for repetitive motifs, resulting in 14 microsatellite markers. A subset of 46 cultivars representing five commercial breeding companies and 11 cultivar series was selected for microsatellite analysis. Seven loci were polymorphic, with two to six alleles per locus. Although both methods were equally effective in distinguishing the cultivars from one another, the topologies of the dendrograms for the two methods were different. The topology of the AFLP dendrogram reflected possible relationships based on cultivar series and breeding company, while the SSR dendrogram did not. The objectives of this research were to develop and validate both F-AFLP and SSR methodologies for new guinea impatiens, identify markers that can be reliably used for fingerprinting, and create a database for future cultivar comparisons.

Vegetable yield is positively related to the environment and negatively affected by the pot root restriction during both the nursery and post-transplant stages. Root restriction is a physical stress imposed on the root system when plants are grown in small containers, which leads to a pronounced decrease in root and shoot growth at both the transplant and pot stages. Based on the assumption that the plant responses are mainly associated with a negative hormonal signaling from roots, some researchers have proposed that these abiotic stresses may be overridden by using a pre-transplant spray with benzyl amino purine (BAP), a synthetic cytokinin able to regulate plant metabolism. Although the physiological mechanisms induced by BAP have been described, the implementation of commercial applications of BAP for vegetables is still a pending issue. The aim of this work was to analyze growth changes in four lettuce genotypes in the presence of different root restrictions degree by the use of different plug cell volumes but sprayed with a single BAP spray under the hypothesis that it would play a role as abiotic stress alleviators. Our results showed that the higher biomass accumulation in lettuce plants non root-limited and BAP-sprayed ones are supported by higher photosynthetic rates, by higher leaf number initiation and expansion and by photo assimilate partition to shoots. Understanding the plant responses to this hormonal manipulation and the physiological mechanism involved will allow adjusting the agronomic advice for different vegetables and reaching commercial yields to each of them.

During the propagation of herbaceous stem-tip cuttings, the photosynthetic daily light integral (DLI) inside greenhouses can be low (≈1–4 mol·m−2·d−1) during the winter and early spring when propagation typically occurs. The mechanisms by which cuttings adapt biomass allocation patterns, gas exchange, and starch accumulation in response to the photosynthetic DLI are not clearly understood. Our objectives were to quantify the impact of DLI on growth, photosynthesis, and carbohydrate concentration during the root development phase of cutting propagation. Petunia (Petunia ×hybrida ‘Suncatcher Midnight Blue’), geranium (Pelargonium ×hortorum ‘Fantasia Dark Red’), and new guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri ‘Celebration Pink’) cuttings were propagated in a glass-glazed greenhouse with 23 °C air and substrate temperature set points. After callusing (≈5 mol·m−2·d−1 for 7 days), cuttings of each species were placed under either no shade or one of the two different fixed-woven shade cloths providing ≈38% or 86% shade with 16 hours of supplemental light for 14 days, resulting in DLIs of 13.0‒14.2, 5.5‒6.0, and 2.0‒2.4 mol·m−2·d−1, respectively. Leaf, stem, and root biomass accumulation increased linearly with DLI by up to 122% (geranium), 118% (petunia), and 211% (new guinea impatiens), as DLI increased by ≈11‒12 mol·m−2·d−1, while relative biomass allocation into roots increased under increasing DLI. Compared with cuttings rooted under low DLIs (2.0‒2.4 mol·m−2·d−1), cuttings of all three species generally had greater maximum gross photosynthesis under high DLIs (13.0‒14.2 mol·m−2·d−1) starting 5 or 8 days after transfer. Starch concentration increased with DLI by up to 946% (impatiens) during propagation. Taken together, the increased growth of cuttings appears to be a result of increased carbohydrate availability from elevated photosynthesis and/or photosynthetic capacity.

Six commercial cultivars (Anna, Aurore, Danhill, Danlight, Melanie, and Thelca), one drought tolerant cultivar (Orangeade), nine breeding selections, and one check genotype of Impatiens hawkeri Bull were evaluated for differences in drought tolerance based on water loss and time to wilt. The six commercially available cultivars had significantly higher mean water loss than the breeding selections and `Orangeade'. These cultivars wilted in 5.11 vs. 7.33 days for `Orangeade' and 9.10 days for the breeding selections. These results suggest that sufficient variability exists in New Guinea impatiens germplasm for the reduction of water loss to improve drought tolerance. Regression analysis revealed that total transpirational water loss 96 hours after withholding water was an excellent predictor of the time to wilting (a simple measure of drought tolerance) after water was withheld (R2 = 0.95). Thus, a simple, efficient and objective method for selection of drought tolerant genotypes has been developed for New Guinea impatiens. A comparison of offspring to parental genotypes showed that after only one cycle of selection, water loss was significantly reduced by >30%. These results suggest that there is sufficient genetic variability present for the development of more drought tolerant cultivars.

New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri Bull.) were grown in a recirculating ebb-and-flow subirrigation system under increasing levels of salinity stress from a mixture of NaCl and CaCl2 (1:1 equivalent ratio, 2:1 molar ratio) and recommended production levels of other nutrients. Growth and quality decreased as salinity level increased, with a 75% to 80% growth reduction at 18 mol·m-3 NaCl-CaCl2 compared to controls. Among controls, root mass distribution was 10%, 50%, and 40% in the top, middle, and bottom layers of the root zone, respectively. In the highest salinity treatment (18 mol·m-3 NaCl-CaCl2), most of the root mass was in the middle layer (80%), while the root mass in the top and bottom layers was reduced to 5% and 15%, respectively. The electrical conductivity (EC) of the growing medium was high in the top layer in all treatments, but only exceeded maximum recommended levels in the middle and bottom layers in the 4·mol·m-3 or higher treatments. Initial postproduction leaching caused the salts in the top layer to migrate to the middle and bottom layers, which in some experiments induced a rapid and transient wilting. Up to six leaching and drying cycles of a 0.20 leaching fraction were required to reduce EC in all layers to recommended levels. Overall, salable plants of good quality and size were produced with up to 2 mol·m-3 (total 152 mg·L-1) NaCl-CaCl2 in the recirculated nutrient solution.

Abstract Ferns are ornamental plants with a low relative growth rate and long production cycles, which are grown at small pot volumes to optimize the commercial space for sale. However, the root restriction effects under this plant management can limit biomass accumulation and frond area. Since an exogenous spray with cytokinin (6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP)) has been suggested as a tool to override the root restriction in plants grown in pots, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of different BAP doses (5, 50, 100 or 200 mg L-1) once (7 days after transplant), twice (7 and 30 days after transplant) or three times (7, 30, and 60 days after transplant), on plant growth and frond area development in spore-propagated Asplenium nidus fern plants grown in pots. Both increasing the BAP doses and number of applications led to an unusual response: an excessive decrease in the frond plastochron and a significant increase in the frond number initiated at the apical shoot meristem. This large frond number was not sustained due to the low net photosynthetic rate of the younger fronds and significantly limited outward appearance.

Potential consumers were surveyed in the spring of 1996 to gain insight into preferences for flower and leaf color in New Guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri Bull.). Survey participants indicated a preference for bright solid colors, and bicolor flowers. The most preferred solid flower colors were red-violet, and red. The least preferred solid flower colors were pink and blush. Potential consumers ranked bicolor flowers over their solid color counterparts. Red and variegated foliage were preferred to solid green. Foliage with solid red upper or lower surfaces were preferred 2:1 over variegated foliage.

Our objective was to quantify the efficacy of foliar plant growth retardant applications on plant height and time to flower of seed-propagated new guinea impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri) produced in packs and flats. ‘Divine Cherry Red’, ‘Divine Scarlet Bronze Leaf’, and ‘Divine White Blush’ seedlings were planted in 1801-cell packs. Seven days after planting, deionized water (control) or solutions containing ancymidol (15 to 60 mg·L−1), chlormequat chloride (750 to 3000 mg·L−1), daminozide (1250 to 5000 mg·L−1), ethephon (250 to 1000 mg·L−1), flurprimidol (10 to 40 mg·L−1), paclobutrazol (10 to 40 mg·L−1), or uniconazole (5 to 20 mg·L−1) were applied to seedlings. A second experiment was performed with the same cultivars quantifying the growth and development in response to a broader range of flurprimidol or paclobutrazol (5 to 40 mg·L−1) or uniconazole (2.5 to 20 mg·L−1) sprays. Plant height was measured 7 weeks after planting. For Expt. 1, ancymidol, chlormequat chloride, and daminozide had little to no impact on stem elongation. However, flurprimidol, paclobutrazol, and uniconazole suppressed height at flowering of all three cultivars. In Expt. 2, plant height with concentrations flurprimidol, paclobutrazol, or uniconazole up to 27 to 30, 20 to 30, or 4 to 5 mg·L−1, respectively, depending on the cultivar. Five to 20 mg·L−1 flurprimidol or paclobutrazol, or < 2.5 mg·L−1 uniconazole may be used to control stem elongation of seed-propagated new guinea impatiens for production in flats.