"Tulips grown in water with added Cu have a healthy root formation"
The objective in the presented experiment was to see the influence of Aqua-Hort on root formation of tulips grown in trays in the greenhouse.
Material and Methods
An Aqua-Hort was installed and used to supply the Cu concentration used for the treatments in this experiment. Tulips were delivered by John Boon together with trays for growing the tulips.
An experiment was carried out with four different concentrations of Cu (see table 1), compared to a control without Cu. In all treatments tap water was used with added fertilizer to an EC of 1.5.
Tulips bulbs were placed in professional trays for growing tulips. In each tray 100 bulbs were placed on the spikes. Bulbs were first placed at 5 C in a cold room and then moved to a greenhouse at 16-19 C. In the cold room, water was changed every three days by removing all the water and adding new. In the greenhouse water was simply added when the water level was low.
Results
Results from the present experiment showed that tulips grown in water with added Cu have a healthy root formation both concerning length and color of the roots (see table 2 and picture 1 and 2). For the 0.4 Cu treatment the roots at all stages looked a little more white that the control.
Table 2. Average length of roots and stem of tulips grown at different levels of Cu (n=15).
Root formation of tulips. From left to right: Control, Cu 0.1, Cu 0.2, and Cu 0.4 after 7 days of growth.
Root formation of tulips. From left to right: Control, Cu 0.1, Cu 0.2, Cu 0.4, and Cu 0.2/0 after 24 days of growth.
Root formation of tulips. From left to right: Control, Cu 0.1, Cu 0.2, Cu 0.4, and Cu 0.2/0 after 32 days of growth.
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