Geranium seedlings: bud positions in the stake and substrates / Mudas de gerânio: posições dos brotos na estaca e substratos

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Geranium seedlings: bud positions in the stake and substrates

Mudas de gerânio: posições dos brotos na estaca e substratos

DOI:10.34117/bjdv6n5-527

Recebimento dos originais: 13/04/2020 Aceitação para publicação: 26/05/2020

Paulo Gonçalves Rabelo

Formação acadêmica: Mestre em Agronomia (Fitotecnia) Instituição: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

Endereço: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - Instituto de Ciências Agrárias, BR 050 km 78, sala 1C212, Campus Glória, 38410-337, Uberlândia-MG-Brasil

E-mail: [email protected]

Roberta Camargos de Oliveira

Formação acadêmica: Doutora em Agronomia (Fitotecnia) Instituição: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

José Magno Queiroz Luz

Formação acadêmica: Doutor em Fitotecnia pela Universidade Federal de Lavras Instituição: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

Daniel Lucas Magalhaes Machado

Formação acadêmica: Doutor em Agronomia (Fitotecnia) Instituição: Syngenta Seeds

Endereço: Av. Lasara Alves Ferreira 80, 38408-092, Uberlândia-MG-Brasil E-mail: [email protected]

Adeláide Siqueira Silva

Formação acadêmica: Doutora em Agronomia (Fitotecnia) Instituição: Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

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ABSTRACT

Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) has several potential substances as bioactive agents, sought by both the food industry, such as cosmetics. It is known that the form of the stake extraction and the substrate used impacts in the formation and quality of seedlings. In this sense, we aimed to evaluate geranium seedlings due to position of the bud’s cutting and substrates. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design, in factorial 3 x 3: types of substrate (sand, soil and 50% sand added to 50% of soil) and bud positions at stake (apex, middle and base), with four replications. Geranium plants should be grown preferentially in substrate to allow a better development of the root system and the sand mixed with soil is a good option. Only the cutting from apex bud’s gives plants the condition of this study, therefore, for use in other segments it is necessary to improve management with the use of plant inducers.

Keywords: Cuttings. Pelargonium graveolens. Sand. Seedling development. RESUMO

Gerânio (Pelargonium graveolens) possui várias substâncias em potencial como agentes bioativos, procurados tanto pela indústria de alimentos como a de cosméticos. Sabe-se que a forma de extração da estaca e o substrato utilizado impactam na formação e na qualidade das mudas. Nesse sentido, objetivamos avaliar as mudas de gerânio devido à posição da gema na estaca e dos substratos. O experimento foi conduzido em delineamento de blocos ao acaso, no fatorial 3 x 3: tipos de substrato (areia, solo e 50% de areia adicionados a 50% de solo) e posição das gemas na estaca (ápice, meio e base), com quatro replicações. As plantas de gerânio devem ser cultivadas preferencialmente em substrato que permita um melhor desenvolvimento do sistema radicular e a areia misturada com o solo é uma boa opção. Somente o corte de brotos do ápice dá origem as mudas, na condição deste estudo; portanto, para uso de outros segmentos, é necessário melhorar o manejo de produção das mudas, com o uso de indutores de plantas.

Palavras-chave: Areia. Desenvolvimento de mudas. Estacas. Pelargonium graveolens. 1 INTRODUCTION

Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), also known as rose scented is an aromatic herb, currently cultivated worldwide (BOUKHATEM et al., 2013). Among the various types of natural substances, the species presents compounds and oils that present potential as natural agents for food preservation, with certain bioactive functional properties (CAVAR; MAKSIMOV, 2012). The oil is mainly used in the perfumery and cosmetics industries because of its strong and pleasant aroma (BLANK et al., 2012).

Geranium oil is one of the top 20 essential oil in the world (NILOFER et al., 2018). Due to high cost of import, this oil generates a higher price in the international market (SINGH; AJIT, 2018). In addition, geranium oil has antibacterial, antioxidant, pharmacological and pesticidal activities (BOUKHRIS et al., 2015, UPADHYAY et al., 2016, PANDEY; PATRA, 2015, SILVA et al., 2017). These activities are due to a large amount of oxygenated monoterpenes, mainly citronellol and geraniol (trans-geraniol), isomenthone, linalool; Citronellil and geranyl acetate (BOUZENNA; KRICHEN, 2012).

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The world production of geranium essential oil of approximately 600 tons (t) has been reached by China, Morocco, Egypt, Reunion Island and South Africa (RAM et al., 2003). Still, there is a deficit of 200 t of geranium essential oil per year. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the production volume of this crop, especially in regions adapted. The specie has great growth in edaphoclimatic conditions of southeastern Brazil, but data on its propagation under these conditions is scarce.

One of the main forms of propagation of this species is via cutting, an efficient method for the multiplication of this species. The cutting is a fast technique, easy to execute and very used in the propagation of species that present greater facility for the formation of adventitious roots. This method has as main advantage the fact of providing greater production of seedlings of the same genetic material in a shorter period of time (CRISPIM et al., 2015).

However, several factors may influence the rooting process of cuttings, specially exogenous or endogenous factors (COSTA et al., 2015, MABIZELA et al., 2017). One of them is the substrate used; therefore, alternative substrates for the production of seedlings have been studied in order to provide better development conditions and seedling formation, besides the possibility of taking agricultural residues produced in each region to make the substrate itself reducing production costs (FINGER et al., 2012, MENDOZA-HERNÁNDEZ et al., 2014).

Some studies show the existence of the variation in the morphological characteristics of the seedlings of some medicinal plants when the substrate is modified for their production. In addition, the type of cuttings used may also affect the induction of roots in plants, due to the existence of a physiological variation along the branch, where cuttings from different parts of the same branch tend to differ in rooting (FACHINELLO et al., 2005).

Finally, according to several authors the propagation of species of the genus Pelargonium with commercial purpose has been a problem due to the low production of seeds and diseases. The propagation by means of the cuttings does not present, until the moment, considerable success, much due to the lack of information about this technique, which has made difficult the production of seedlings in large scale. In view of the above, the present work aimed to evaluate the development of seedlings of

Pelargonium graveolens as a function of the gem positions in the Geranium stake and different substrates.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at the Experimental Farm Glória (18 ° 57 'S and 48 ° 12' W), located at BR 050, 12 km from the center of Uberlândia, MG. According to the climatic

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classification of Köppen, the climate of the region is characterized as Aw (megatérmico), presenting during the year two well defined seasons, dry winter and rainy summer. In the municipality of Uberlândia, rainfall in the driest month is around 60 mm and in the month of rainfall around 250 mm and the average annual total is between 1500 and 1600 mm.

The experimental design was a randomized complete block design (RCBD), in a 3 x 3 factorial scheme, with four replications, three substrate types (sand, soil and 50% sand added to 50% soil) and three positions of gem at the stake (apex, middle and base).

The soil collected for the rooting test was the typical dystrophic Red Latosol (Embrapa, 1999). In order to avoid invasive plant seeds the soil was removed in a gully at 50 cm from the surface. The chemical analysis showed the following results: pH = 5.4; P = 0.8mg dm-3; K = 27 cmolc dm-3; Ca2+ = 0.7 cmolc dm-3; Mg2+ = 0.1 cmolc dm-3, Al3+ = 0 cmolc dm-3, CTC = 1.97 cmolc dm-3, t = 0.87 cmolc dm -3_{; SB = 0.87 cmol}

c dm-3.

The greenhouse in which the experiment was conducted is of the tunnel type 4 m wide, 6 m long and 2 m lateral height by 2.60 m central height with metal structure and cover with agricultural plastic film, with 150 microns of thickness. The cuttings used come from the material of the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC).

After 120 days, the seedlings were removed from the substrate and sectioned into leaves and roots. The fresh matter of leaves was measured by weighing the material in analytical balance. To obtain the dry matter, the leaves and roots were packed in kraft paper bags and placed in a stove with forced air circulation at 65ºC until reaching a constant matter (approximately 96 hours).

The volume of the root system was determined using a 50 mL beaker, in which the roots were immersed. The displaced water height above the reference level (25 mL) was evaluated on the scale of the test tube itself. After 30, 60, 90 and 120 days in the greenhouse, the sprout was evaluated in each repetition and the number of sprouts were transformed in percentage.

The results were submitted to analysis of variance. The averages were compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability. Polynomial regression analysis was performed for sprouting percentage data. In all analyzes, the statistical program SISVAR was used.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The sprouting percentage decreased linearly over the weeks. Most of the buds formed shoots at 30 days after planting (89% of the evaluated plants - Figure 1).

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Figure 1 - Percentage of sprouting along the days after planting

Only the buds located in the apical position of the stake originated new plants. The fresh leaf mass at this position was 32.89 g plant-1, with a root volume of 14.33 mL (Table 1).

Table 1 - Fresh leaf mass and root volume of Geranium seedlings, originating from different bud positions in the stake

Origin of budding Fresh Leaves weight (g plant-1₎ _{Root volume (mL)}

Apex 32.89 b 14.33 b

Medium 0.00 a 0.00 a

Base 0.00 a 0.00 a

DMS 9.13 5.42

1_{Means followed by distinct letters in the column differ from each other by the Tukey test at 0.05 significance level}

The variation in the rooting capacity along the plant branch occurs because there are variations in the concentration of phytohormones and translocated carbohydrates of leaves and buds that interact with the cuttings' tissue and influence in the rooting potential of the cuttings (FACHINELLO et al., 2005).

Exogenous and endogenous factors regulate the formation of adventitious roots, such as Ca2+, sugars, auxins, polyamines, ethylene copolymer, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide, carbon monoxide, cGMP, MAPKs and peroxidases. These mediators appear to act as signals and auxin plays a role in signal transduction during adventitious root formation (LI et al., 2009).

Apical cuttings are present near auxin synthesis sites, which would justify the fact that rooting of geranium buds occurs on cuttings of this position. According to Taiz and Zeiger (2017), the proximity of the apical bud favors greater root formation, due to the presence of auxins produced in the apical meristem, which are displaced basipetally by the cells of the parenchyma to the base of the cuttings, where they promote induction.

y = -0,1541x + 92,067 R² = 93,15% 70 75 80 85 90 30 45 60 75 90 105 120

Days after planting

S p ro u ti n g (% )

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In cases where plant hormones are not present in quantities necessary for the reactivation of the metabolic system, synthetic growth regulators can be applied, which lead to a higher percentage of root formation, with higher quality and uniformity (CARVALHO et al., 2005).

In this work, it was observed that buds originating from the medium and basal cutting needs to be stimulated externally for the formation and development of seedlings. However, Regina et al. (2012) emphasized the need for research for Brazilian conditions, since the exogenous applications of auxins have been made empirically, in most cases, based on the levels used in European countries.

Roncatto et al. (2008) in rooting work of herbaceous cuttings of different species of passion fruit, observed that some cuttings also did not rooted, or had very low rooting rates. The authors justified the failure of rooting due to the high degree of lignification of the branches, in which the root beginnings can not overcome this lignified tissue, not effecting rooting. Tofanelli et al. (2001) pointed out that basal cuttings have a semi-solid constitution, and this high lignification constitutes a physical barrier, which may have occurred with the medium and basal geranium cuttings.

Higher dry mass of roots were observed in cuttings originating from gemstones located at the apex in a substrate containing soil and sand mixture. This behavior was the inverse for the leaf dry mass, which showed similarity between sand and soil and reduction when the two substrates were combined (Table 2).

Table 2 - Dry mass of roots and leaves of Geranium seedlings grown on different substrates

Substrate Dry mass of roots (g plant-1₎ _{Dry mass of leaves (g plant}-1₎

Sand 3,61 b 5,19 a

Sand and Soil 3,66 a 5,10 b

Soil 3,62 b 5,24 a

1_{Means followed by distinct letters in the column differ from each other by the Tukey test at 0.05 significance level}

The results can be explained based on the structuring of the substrate. Lima et al. (2005) stated that sand allows better root expansion and development, but other factors are involved in the accumulation of matter by plants, especially nutrients, which, when present in a readily available form, maximizes and enables a better performance of the photosynthetic plants, consequently greater accumulation of matter. The use of sand in the mixture of substrates, despite being low in nutrients, is a viable alternative due to the low cost, wide availability and mainly the improvement in drainage (FACHINELLO et al.,

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2005). Cunha et al. (2015) suggested that sand because it has a greater amount of macropores facilitates the aeration at the base of the stake, facilitating the development of the root system.

The mixture of substrates is favorable, since it allows physical conditions more favorable for the proper development of the seedlings and improvement in nutrient supply (FACHINELLO et al., 2005). It was observed that the mixture of sand and soil favored the root system, but the result was not observed in the aerial part. Possibly, there was more investment of photoassimilates by the plant to constitute the root system, which in the long term would probably result in reflection in the aerial part, since a better formed root system allows a better supply of water and nutrients. These aspects were not evidenced in the present experiment because they were seedling formation, maybe not enough time to observe all these steps.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Geranium plants obtained by cuttings not submitted to growth regulator should be cultivated, preferably, in a substrate that allows better development of the root system, and sand mixed with the soil is a good option.

Only the buds at the apex of the cutting originated plants under the conditions of this experiment, therefore, for use of other segments it is necessary to improve the handling with the use of plant inductors.

5 DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the authors.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the financial support.

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