Effect of Transplanting Date and Pot Shapes on Flowering and Seed Production of Antirrhinum Majus L. Plants

Abstract

To demonstrate the impact of planting date and pot shape on Flowering and Seed Production of Snapdragon plants under various production systems, a factorial experiment using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) was carried out in a local nursery in the city of Duhok in northern Iraq from Jan 10, 2021, to Jan 6, 2022. Each experimental unit had eight pots, for a total of 92 pots in the experiment, which had 24 experimental units and four replications. The experiment made use of the Snapshot Mix cultivar of the second group of Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus L.). The date of transplanting from germination and the of the pot shapes were two factors in the experiment. Growth characteristics were recorded from the first flower bud opened, including an estimate of the number of days until colour appeared, the number of florets and the combined weight of the wet and dry inflorescence. The characteristics of the seeds were also measured when the fruits were formed and reached full maturity, namely their percentage of germination, rate of germination, number of cans, number of seeds and weight of 1000 seeds. The results showed that the date of transplanting had a significant impact on flowering characteristics, it can also be seen that plants grown in circular pots outperformed those grown in square pots, where they were: 33.07 cans, 2037.5 seeds, 0.166 g, 91.48%, and 1.95 days, which was positively reflected in the flowering characteristics.