首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
     检索      


Tolerance of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) Plants to Partial Defoliation
Authors:Casierra-Posada  Fánor  Briceño-Pinzón  Iván David  Carreño-Patiño  Julio Alexander
Institution:1.Plant Ecophysiology Group, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja, Colombia
;2.Plant Ecophysiology Group, Duitama, Colombia
;
Abstract:

Vegetables in the tropics are grown continuously throughout the year due to the favorable climate. Unfortunately, leafy vegetables are often damaged because of slugs and snails. These mollusks and other herbivores cause different levels of defoliation to plants which can significantly impact their growth, production, and quality of the harvested product. A study was carried out in order to artificially simulate the effect of a loss in foliar area caused by these pests. The impact of severe artificial defoliation in spinach plants (Spinacia oleracea) was evaluated in Tunja, Colombia. Under greenhouse conditions and after transplanting, the plants had 75% of their leaf area removed. This procedure was repeated weekly on newly emerging leaves while a control group of plants was left intact. 71 days after transplanting, the plants were harvested, and the leaf area and dry weight of the plants were measured with which some allometric variables were calculated to express growth. Variables such as the number of leaves, plant height, total dry weight, relative growth ratio, leaf weight ratio (LWR), and root to shoot ratio (R:S) were unaffected by defoliation while leaf area, leaf area ratio (LAR), and specific leaf area (SLA) were reduced with the partial removal of the leaf area. The partial defoliation resulted in an increased partial biomass of the leaves. These results suggest that spinach plants have a moderate tolerance to partial defoliation.

Keywords:
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号