Floral induction of the bromeliad Guzmania
‘Grand Prix’
The natural bromeliad’s flowering generally is not
very uniform, so it is necessary to use flower induction
to control the long vegetative growth period showed
by those plants. This experiment was carried out in
Epamig’s experimental farm, Nova Porteirinha State of
Minas Gerais, Brazil, using bromeliad Guzmania ‘Grand Prix’, aiming to analyze the flowering development
and quality in two plant ages (10 and 16 months
old) and two ethephon’s dosages for floral induction
(12 and 24 mg/plant) plus plant control. The induction
was made using 30 ml of solution with the concentration
referring to a treatment, put in the center of the
rosette. The evaluations were made weekly to measure
the number of days among induction, flowering and
flowering development. Whithout the growth regulator
the plants did not set flowers indicating the necessity
of flower induction to commercial growth. Sixteen
months old plants showed faster flowering development,
higher stem and inflorescence diameter, besides
higher bracts number in comparison to ten months old
plants. The lowest dosage (12 mg) gave early flowering,
higher diameter and fast flowering development.
There was interaction between dosage factors and age
related to flower stem height, ten months old plants inducted
with higher dosage did show low stem height.
The better results were got in plants that were inducted
at sixteen months old and lower growth regulator dosage
(12 mg) showed to be more efficient.