Effect of Storage Temperature, Duration, and Gibberellic Acid on the Flowering of Zantedeschia elliottiana and Z. ‘Pink Satin’

Abstract

Abstract Tubers of Zantedeschia elliottiana (Watson) Engl. and the hybrid Z. ‘Pink Satin’, a Z. rehmannii Engl.-like selection, were stored at 5°C. Over a 3-month period they were transferred to incubators at 12°, 18°, or 24° for 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 weeks of holding. One-third of these tubers were planted in moist media during this time; the remaining tubers were stored dry and on removal were sprayed with either gibberellic acid (GA3) at 50 mg·liter−1 or distilled water before planting and transfer to a greenhouse. The proportion of flowering of dry-stored tubers of Z. elliottiana was reduced by prolonged storage at 5°. Subsequent storage at 12° did not reduce this proportion, but, at 18° and 24° flowering was reduced further. Tubers of Z. ‘Pink Satin’ were less sensitive to the duration of dry storage at 5°, but increasing time of storage at all subsequent temperatures caused a progressive decrease in the proportion of tubers that flowered. The proportion of moist-stored tubers of both selections that flowered was greater than that for tubers stored dry for an equivalent time. A preplant treatment with GA3 enabled almost total compensation for reduced flowering except after the longest period of storage.