Enhancing growth of roses by using tea seed extract
The rose is the most popular among all the flowers due to the diversity of growth habit, form of flowers and colors. It’s also called the “Queen of Flowers”. Roses are symbolic of love, beauty and pride. The major rose producing countries of the world include the Netherlands, Japan, United States, Italy, Israel, Kenya and Colombia. Pakistan is also trying to develop commercial level business with this major cut flowers produced crops. According to the survey growing of cut roses in the province of Punjab is on 526 ha land and almost 10 to 12 thousand tons of product of floriculture including roses are produced.
Roses intensification and excellence are affected by the management of nutrients to a great extent but in Pakistan's soils a deficiency of organic matter and accessible phosphorus is a common problem, which limits its growth. Foliar application of plant growth regulators, micronutrients and vitamins is a second source of curing nutrient deficiencies which cannot be healed by soil.
Different extracts used in plants for centuries due to their beneficial effect on plant health and several reports has proved that extracts used on plant foliage for control the diseases and their growth and production proved beneficial. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is an evergreen plant which belongs to the family Theaceae, and is an important agriculture product. Due to the presence of variety of beneficial compounds, it considered helpful for providing essential nutrients and growth regulators. A study was designed in University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, from 2014 to 2015 to explore the natural growth stimulating effect of tea seed extract on plant growth, yield and quality of different cultivars of rose found in Pakistan. Different doses of tea seed extract were applied as a foliar spray on rose plants with five days intervals.
In this study, morphological (i.e. number of leaves, Leaf area, plant fresh weight, plant dry weight) and physio-biochemical parameters (i.e. photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, water use efficiency, stomatal conductance, total chlorophyll contents) showed significant result with foliar application of tea seed extract for different varieties of roses but 150ml/L of tea seed extract showed best result as a growth enhancer. The overall performance of tea seed extract was reliable and good for use as a commercial natural plant growth stimulator, which can both increase or decrease the growth of plant depending on the applied dose and varieties.
For more information
University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
Dr. Rashad Mukhtar Balal, Dr. Gulzar Akhtar, Muhammad Ammar Jabbar,
Dr. Ahsan Akram
Department of Horticulture, University college of Agriculture,
Cell: +92 321 6211912
Email: [email protected]