Liquid Culture Systems for in vitro Plant Propagation

Nutrition of plants in greenhouses and in vitro 487
commercial grower such a high fertilization rate because of the danger of
root decay at such high SSE. We must emphasise that with such high rates of
fertilization of mother plants, careful attention to the water content of the
pots is essential; they must never be allowed to dry out.
Table 8: The effect of alternative RS-media compared with M. et al. (1972) medium on some
floral characters of Saintpaulia ionantha (from Ayeh, 1998). Registrations were done 3 weeks
after appearance of the first flower, i.e. after 17 (M-72), 16 (RS-1997-1) and 14 weeks (RS-
1997-3)
Mean number per plant
Medium Floral buds Floral stalks Flowers
M- 72 20.2 b 3.3 a 8.3 b
RS-1997-1 24.2 ab 3.0 a 10.0 ab
RS-1997-3 32.5 a 4.9 a 19.3 a
*
Different letters represent statistical differences at 5% level analysed by SAS Statistical
package (ANOVA).
Table 9: The effect of nitrogen fertilization (Ca(NO 3) 2 to the mother plants on percentage of
shoot forming leaf discs and number of shoots per leaf disc (Begonia x cheimantha; Borgen,
1983) as determined after 10 weeks of culture
Fertilizer Ca(NO 3) 2
(N=15.5%, Ca = 19.45%)
N
75
Nitrogen and calcium fertilisation in mg l -1
Ca
86
N
150
Ca
184
N
300
No. of shoots per leaf disc 48.6 40.0 81.4
% of leaf discs producing
shoots
55.0 66.0 83.2
4. Uptake of nutrients related to climate
Ca
368
The greenhouse environment consists of many factors that affect both the
uptake of nutrients and their distribution within the plant, thus affecting the
growth of the crop, the yield and the quality of the product.