Modeling Growth and Development of Celosia and Impatiens in Response to Temperature and Photosynthetic Daily Light Integral

Abstract

Commercial greenhouse growers often produce bedding plants from midwinter to early summer, and thus crops are grown under a wide range of environmental conditions. Despite bedding plants' high economic value, the interactions of temperature and photosynthetic daily light integral (DLI) on growth and flowering have not been determined for many bedding plants. We grew celosia (Celosia argentea L. var. plumosa L.) and seed impatiens (Impatiens wallerana Hook.f.) in glass greenhouses in a range of temperature (15 to 27 °C) and DLI (8 to 26 mol·m-2·d-1) conditions to quantify effects on growth and flowering. Growth (e.g., plant dry mass at flowering) and flowering characteristics (e.g., time to flowering and flower bud number) were modeled in response to the average daily temperature and DLI by using multiple regression analysis. Rate of progress to flowering (1/days to flower) of celosia increased as temperature increased up to ≈25 °C and as the average DLI increased to 15 ·mol·m-2·d-1. Impatiens grown under a DLI <15 mol·m-2·d-1 flowered progressively earlier as temperature increased from 14 to 28 °C, whereas temperature had little effect on flowering time when plants were grown under the highest DLI treatments. Number of flowers and flower buds at first flowering increased in both species as temperature decreased or DLI increased. Shoot dry mass at first flowering followed a similar trend, except celosia dry mass decreased as temperature decreased. The models developed to predict flowering time and plant quality could be used by commercial growers to determine the impacts of changing growing temperature, growing plants at different times of the year, and providing supplemental lighting.