A Phenological scale of statice

Abstract

AbstractStatice is an important cut flower belonging to the Plumbaginaceae family and which has good acceptance among producers and consumers. The construction of a phenological scale for statice that is easy, fast, and non‐destructive can contribute to the improvement of management practices, increase flower yield and quality, increase the knowledge on the plant and facilitate the communication between the scientific and technical personnel. Field and greenhouse experiments with seven sowing dates were carried out during 2019 and 2020 at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, with Assorted Seeds (mix) and two cultivars (QIS Purple and QIS Yellow) of statice to describe the main stages of plant development. The developmental cycle of statice was divided into three phases: germination, vegetative and reproductive. The germination phase includes the stages S0, S1, S2 and SE, the vegetative phase comprises the stages VC, V2, V8, V10, V20, V100 and Vn, and the reproductive phase has the stages R1, R1.1, R1.2, R1.n, R2, R2.1, R2.2, R2.n, R3, R3.1, R3.2, R3.n, R4, R4.1, R4.2, R4.n, R5, R5.1, R5.2, R5.n, R6, R6.1, R6.2, R6.n, R7, R7.1, R7.2, R7.n, R8, R8.1, R8.2, R8.n and R9. Part of the vegetative development overlaps the reproductive development to represent the appearance of new leaves as new floral stems develop. The phenological scale proposed for statice has practical applications and can be easily used in the field by scientists, teachers, students, consultants and farmers.