Moderator: Izhar
Q.1. About purple flowers blooming earlier- no idea. But why would this happen in the first place? Interesting observation.farhan137 wrote:
Q.2 Mali's by tradition recommend reducing water to promote flowering early. Is it valid as is the case with bolting?
But there are two aspects of this.
(a) Early flowering would mean soon the annual will be finished as it has not grown large enough or will it continue to grow?
(b) Should one continue watering as the time will come when one will not be able to meet the optimum water requirements as temperatures increase, such as spring changing into summer?
. What say you?...they follow tradition without knowing the essence/reason and what happens is that actual cause is lost with sands of time. Mutilated. They have a long way to go.I would agree with you that why induce early flowering by stress? What was your Mali's rationale? Searching the causes of bolting reveals that bolting is also induced by light, temperature and water stress (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/pro ... px?pid=262).farhan137 wrote:Ahhh...the dependable Farooq Sb answering
Q.2 That is one part, other considerations remain. Stress induced flowering would than be bolting as the plants in discussion are annuals. Bolting of course means a quick demise. If the aim is just to achieve fewer quicker blooms than this theory would hold good, but not when one desire a healthy floriferous plant, not in hurry to die rather enjoying its stay :-). What say you?
Its interesting to note that you mentioned LACK OF NUTRIENTS, kindly elaborate how that would induce flowering?
And about Mali's :-)...they follow tradition without knowing the essence/reason and what happens is that actual cause is lost with sands of time. Mutilated. They have a long way to go.
Farhan, the classic example of pH dependence of flower colours is Hydrangeas. They are red and blue in different pH. Your hypothesis may be valid about pH causing a purple colour, but it does not explain early bloom.farhan137 wrote:For Q.2 I have not been able to get a definite answer but an interesting clue.
Anthocyanins(Blue Flower) are pigments responsible for flower colors. And the amount of these pigments and color they produce is varied by soil type/nutrients and PH. As color is dictated by Genes and variegated by above mentioned factors, it could be so that my soil/PH is more supportive of BLUES(if available in that annual).
This could be verified if some members have also observed appearance of some specific color earlier in his garden which would be because of the specific soil/PH of his garden.
You are right that stress is induced by changing the conditions. It was a highly controlled recent study so it means that stress induced flowering is a recent research problem in plant physiology. Bolting is a economic disaster in the worst case.farhan137 wrote:
Regarding lack of nutrients, what i understand.......
It is caused by salicylic acid which induces plant defense against various adverse factors ( in this case, salicylic acid signals flower production/bolting). BUT this lack of nutrient is not total lack of nutrients from start. "Its removal of nutrients which were present earlier to induce stress".......in other words to remove nutrients/fertilizer of a healthy plant to make it bloom.............But that would be very difficult in garden environment unless one is experimenting in pots.