RESPONSE OF APPLICATION OF GIBBERELLIC ACID AND BENZYLADENINE TO SCHEFFLERA (SCHEFFLERA ARBORICOLA L.) PLANTS

Field trials with Schefflera arboricola L. were conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture Farm, Azad University, Jiroft in the growing season of 2013. The aim of this work was to study the effect of foliar applications of gibberellic acid and benzyladenine at concentrations of 0, 50, 100 and 200 mg l -1 on vegetative growth characteristics and photosynthetic pigments of Schefflera plant. Results demonstrated a significant effect on most vegetative growth characteristics such as plant height, number of leaves/plant, chlorophyll index and photosynthetic pigments by application of the two factors tested in this study. All foliar applications BA and GA3 separately promoted all the afore-mentioned characters in this study, as well as photosynthetic pigments of Chl. (a and b), total chlorophyll compared with control plants. The highest evaluations were recorded in plants treated with 200 mg l -1 GA3+100 mg l -1 BA for plant height, number of leaves/plant, chlorophyll index and stem diameter, except for the treatment 100 mg l -1 GA3+100 mg l -1 BA, which gave the highest evaluation for leaf area.