Impact of putrescine and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on nutrient uptake, growth, and post-harvest performance of Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii cv. Dune) cut flowers

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of putrescine foliar application and inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on some growth characteristics, absorption of nutrients, and post-harvest performance of Gerbera jamesonii cv. Dune. The present study was performed as a factorial trial with a completely randomized design and a total of three repetitions in the greenhouse. Experimental variants included 0, 1, 2, and 4 mM concentrations of putrescine as foliar spraying and mycorrhizal fungi, with and without mycorrhizal inoculation. The amount of mycorrhiza inoculation was 60 g per pot. Gerbera plants were transplanted into pots with or without mycorrhizal inoculation. Two weeks after the establishment of the plant and mycorrhizal fungus, foliar spraying of putrescine was performed every 15 days during a three-month period. In this experiment, morphological features such as fresh and dry weight of the root, pedicel length and diameter, the volume of the root, absorption of nutrients, including phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and nitrate, as well as post-harvest features, including relative fresh weight, solution absorption rate, and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase enzyme activity, underwent investigation. The findings demonstrated that putrescine, along with mycorrhizal fungi, had a positive effect on the growth characteristics of Gerbera, could increase nutrient absorption, and improve post-harvest indicators. Overall, these results indicated that 2 and 4 mM putrescine could positively affect growth and nutrient uptake indices, while 1 mM putrescine was more effective for post-harvest characteristics.