Pinching and Spacing Effects on Cut Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Production in East Texas

<p>Three experiments evaluated pinching and spacing on <em>Helianthus annuus </em>in East Texas to determine their effects on growth and development. Experiment 1 was designed to determine the effects of pinching nodes 1, 2, 3, or 4 on ‘Pro Cut Gold’ sunflowers. Results from experiment 1 showed non-pinched plants produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes, while pinched plants’ stem length, stem diameter, flower diameter, and disk diameter decreased compared to the non-pinched plants. The objective for experiment 2 was to evaluate pinching and spacing treatments on ‘Pro Cut Gold’ sunflowers. All spacings for non-pinched plants in experiment 2 produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes. Experiment 3 was designed to analyze the effects of pinching nodes 1, 2, 3, or 4 on ‘Pro Cut Gold, ‘Supreme Sunbright’, ‘Vincents Choice’, ‘Sunrich Lemon’, and ‘Superior Gold’ sunflowers. All of the non-pinched plants for all five cultivars produced marketable stem lengths and flower sizes. Pinching responses varied by cultivar but overall stem length, stem diameter, flower diameter, and disk diameter all decreased compared to the non-pinched plants. ‘Vincents Choice’ pinched at the first node was the only cultivar when pinched to produce a marketable stem length and flower size. A successful pinching in East Texas is dependent on planting early into the growing season (May). Spacing did not clearly affect sunflower growth and development; therefore, increasing planting densities of non-pinched sunflowers could increase marketable stem yield compared to pinching sunflowers at lower planting densities.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science - Agriculture

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agriculture

Year dc:date.available

2017

Author dc:creator

• Burnett, Rebecca B

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Michael Maurer
• Dr. Jared Barnes
• Dr. Josephine Taylor

• Helianthus annuus
• Sunflower
• Pinching
• Spacing
• East Texas
• Cut Flower Production
• Agricultural Science
• Agriculture
• Agronomy and Crop Sciences
• Horticulture
• Plant Biology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/121

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1130