Effect of the variation in vernalization temperature and gibberellic acid concentration on coriander productivity

Abstract

Compared to the other plants of family Apiaceae, production of coriander fruits requires longer periods. Thus, controlling of flowering duration and shorten the period is considered a crucial act to reduce the production period with save irrigation water. Therefore, an experiment was conducted during the two successive seasons (2018/2019 and 2019/2020) to investigate the effect of vernalization by four different temperatures (control without cold, 0° C, 3° C and 6° C) and three concentrations of gibberellic acid, GA3, (0, 50 and 100 ppm) on vegetative growth, number of days to 50% flowering and maturity, fruits production and volatile oil percentage of coriander fruits. The experimental design was a Split-plot design with three replications. Results showed that the vernalized seeds at 3° C caused high significant effect on all studied characteristics where it gave the highest average of plant height, number of branches and umbls /, fruits yield, volatile oil percentages and oil yield (ml / plant), and reduction number of days to 50% flowering and maturity compared with other treatments. The application of GA3 at 100 ppm gave the highest average in above-stated parameters compared to other GA3 treatments. Concerning the effect of interaction treatments, the obtained results cleared that all studied characteristics showed the highest average as a result of the combination between vernalized seed at 3° C and 100 ppm of gibberellic acid (GA3). Treatments under study gave a pronounced effect on essential constituents where linalool is the main constituent. In conclusion, to decrease the number of days from planting to complete maturity and increased dry herb weight/plant vernalized seeds at 3° C treated with GA3 at 100 ppm should be exploited in coriander production systems.