JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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The reproductive development stage is a crucial stage in plant life to study the potential of plant yield. Salt tolerance in this stage is desirable to obtain a stable and high yield. A Cynodon dactylon population from America (Cyn3, London Univ. Collection), was suitable to study the detached immature inflorescence in booting stage on liquid medium. The detached inflorescenes were cultured on a liquid medium prepared with or without various supplements of NaCl (0 to 2%) and kinetin concentrations. The sequence of morphological events of spike development in vitro, and the effects of NaCl on spikelet opening, embryo sac growth, fertilization and caryopsis development were studied. The liquid medium supplemented with 10^-7 M kinetin resulted in natural caryopsis development. Supplementing NaCl to the liquid medium had deteriorating effects on the embryo sac development and resulted in the production of abnormal caryopses. The abnormal caryopses were smaller in diameter with a more fragile pericarp. However, a small number of spikelets grown in liquid medium, supplemented with low salt concentration up to 5%, produced normal caryopses and germinated well on soaked filter paper in petri dishes at appropriate conditions.

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  Experiments were conducted to study the effects of temperature and chemical treatments on the vase life of cut Asiatic hybrid lily cultivar Pisa, with sixteen chemical treatments using factorial design with 3 replication arrangements. Lilium cut flowers were harvested when the first flower colored fully. Following chemical treatments, they were grouped in different combinations before storage. The treatments included sucrose, 8- hydroxy quinoline sulfate (HQS), citric acid (CA), gibberellic acid (GA₃), kinetine (KI) and distilled water as control. Lilium cut flowers were pulsed for 24 hours in different solutions, then brought out and kept in the distilled water at temperatures of 4^°C and 22 ^° C .Effects of applied treatments were evaluated on different characteristics like vase life, the amount of water absorbed, flower diameter, total soluble solids and fresh weight. Results showed that the temperature of 4^°C had the most effect on vase life, keeping the quality of lilium cut flowers. The results also displayed that the chemical treatments kinetine + sucrose had the most effect on vase life and percentage of sucrose, gibberellic acid + kinetine delayed yellowing of the foliage, 8- hydroxy quinoline absorbed the most amount of water, and treatments sucrose + kinetine , gibberellic acid + 8- hydroxy quinoline sulfate and gibberellic acid + citric acid were most effective in increasing the flowers diameter.