Abstract
There were many researches about the influence of micronutrient concentration toward growth of plants. However, there was no clear statement about the micronutrient level for growth of Phalaenopsis seedlings. Hence it was worth to investigate the optimum level of mi cronutrient for Phalaenopsis , an endangered orchid species. Using Phalaenopsis deliciosa as the subject, germinated seedlings were grown on defined culture media containing different MS micronutrient level. After 90 days with a subculture at day 45, fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots of the seedlings were measured. It was found that the optimum micronutrient level for P. deliciosa seedling growth was observed between 0.50◊ and 1.00◊ of MS micronutrient level. Higher micronutrient level caused roots and seedlings to d eterioration except for a minority of seedling vari ants that grew exceptionally well, suggesting that high micronutri ent level was selective for a small number of varia nts. The study demonstrated the importance of appropriate micronutrient level for supporting growth and develop ment for wide range of genotypes in P. deliciosa . This micronutrient level may as well be optimum for other species under the genus Phalaenopsis and should be considered for maintaining genotype diversity in vitro .
Highlights
Mn caused poor root development due to the enhancement of auxin destruction according to a Micronutrients are important for plant growth and morphogenesis (George and De Klerk, 2008)
Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) on various parameters of seedlings grown on different micronutrient levels showed that Root Fresh Weight (RFW), Root Dry Weight (RDW), Total Fresh Weight (TFW), Total Dry Weight (TDW), R/S ratio and WC were significantly different (ρ>0.995), while Shoot Fresh Weight (SFW) and Shoot Dry Weight (SDW) not significantly different (Table 1)
The significance in Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of RFW and RDW indicated that the micronutrient level affected the growth of roots
Summary
Mn caused poor root development due to the enhancement of auxin destruction according to a Micronutrients are important for plant growth and morphogenesis (George and De Klerk, 2008). Micronutrients are essential elements required at minute amount and constitute less than 0.01% of plant tissue dry mass while beneficial elements are those that may enhance plant growth or required by certain plant species only (Barker and Pilbeam, 2007). Excessive Zn concentration is inhibitory for root growth (George and De Klerk, 2008). Micronutrients except for Co and I, which are beneficial elements The functions of these elements are described in Insufficient concentration of micronutrients affects plants growth. P. deliciosa is an endangered orchid species listed in the Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES, 2013) and deserves to be propagated
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