Evaluation of Calcium Application Methods on Delaying Plant Wilting under Water Deficit in Bedding Plants

Authors

Suejin Park, West Virginia University
Nicole L. Waterland

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

College/Unit

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department/Program/Center

Division of Plant and Soil Sciences

Abstract

Floriculture crops can lose their aesthetic quality due to water deficit during postproduction. Calcium is a secondary messenger in plant stress signaling, and the treatment of calcium has been proposed to alleviate damage by various abiotic stresses. The objective of this research was to evaluate application methods of calcium to delay plant wilting under water deficiency in three species of bedding plants: viola (Viola cornuta), impatiens (Impatiens walleriana), and petunia (Petunia grandiflora). Three application methods were compared including spray, drench, and pre-drench. Calcium was applied as CaCl₂ and Ca(NO₃)₂ at three concentrations ranging from 50 to 300 mM. The effect of calcium on shelf life was species-dependent, increasing shelf life in viola and impatiens, but not in petunia. Viola showed increased shelf life up to 154% and 400% in drench and pre-drench applications, respectively, compared to the control. In impatiens, spray and pre-drench applications delayed wilting symptoms by 53% and 200%, respectively. Comparing calcium sources, CaCl₂ was the most effective as a drench, while Ca(NO₃)₂ pre-drench application effectively delayed wilting. There was no difference between CaCl₂ and Ca(NO₃)₂ in spray application. These results provided the optimum application methods to delay plant witling and the potential of calcium application on enhancing water deficit tolerance in floriculture crops.

Digital Commons Citation

Park, Suejin and Waterland, Nicole L., "Evaluation of Calcium Application Methods on Delaying Plant Wilting under Water Deficit in Bedding Plants" (2021). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 3015.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/3015

Source Citation

Park, S.; Waterland, N.L. Evaluation of Calcium Application Methods on Delaying Plant Wilting under Water Deficit in Bedding Plants. Agronomy 2021, 11, 1383. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11071383

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cite.

This article received support from the WVU Libraries' Open Access Author Fund.