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Pak. J. Bot., 48(4):1481-1487, 2016.

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GROWTH, FLOWERING AND DRY MATTER PARTITIONING RESPONSE OF

MID-FLOWERING SNAPDRAGON CULTIVAR LIBERTY WHITE

GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT LIGHT GRADIENTS

MOHAMMED REFDAN ALHAJHOJ^1* AND MUHAMMAD MUNIR²

¹College of Agriculture Sciences and Food, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

²Frontier Agriculture, SOYL Precision Crop Production Division, Newbury, United Kingdom

^*Corresponding author’s e-mail: refdan99@yahoo.com

Abstract

The rationale of the present study was to quantify the effects of different shade levels (30%, 40%, 50% and 60%) and a control (no shade) on growth, flowering and dry matter partitioning traits of Snapdragon cultivar Liberty Wight. A linear relationship was observed between different shade levels and flowering time, rate of progress to flowering, leaf numbers, leaf area, plant height, plant spread, plant fresh weight, plant dry weight, leaf fresh weight and lead dry weight. These growth and development traits increased linearly from 30% to 60% shade levels, however, the rate of progress to flowering was inverse to flowering time when plants were kept under shades. A polynomial hyperbolic relationship was observed in specific leaf area, specific leaf weight, leaf weight ratio, leaf area ratio, relative growth rate and net assimilation rate. It is concluded that different shade levels significantly (P≤0.05) prolonged various growth and development phases of Snapdragon cultivar Liberty White. These finding can be applied to enhance crop quality and to delay growth and flowering time for steadily supply of plants to the market.

Key words: Snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus L., Liberty white, Shade levels, Light gradients, Growth, Flowering, Dry matter partitioning.