School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
Abstract
Plants of Begonia x tuberhybrida ‘Nonstop’, ‘Clips’, and ‘Musical’ were exposed to 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks of short
days (SD, 9 hours day length) initiated at 3 stages of plant development (immediately upon germination, 4
or 8 weeks after germination). Prior to and succeeding short days, plants were exposed to long days (LD, 16
hours day length). Musical flowered on average 68 days, Clips 78 days and Nonstop 83 days after germination under continuous LD conditions. In Nonstop, SD for 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks delayed plant development by an average 12 days compared to LD grown plants. One, 2, or 3 weeks of SD resulted in 1 week slower flowering and 4 weeks of SD resulted in 2 weeks later flowering in Clips. The sensitivity to SD varied with plant stage in Musical. Three or 4 weeks of SD initiated at germination or 4 weeks after germination resulted in an average delayed flowering of 13 days compared to LD plants. SD initiated 8 weeks after germination had no effect on rate of development in Musical