Applying Calcium Carbide Solution Affect Sex Expression and Increases Yield of Monoicous Cucumber

Mashayekhi, Kambiz; Jafari, Saeed; Shomali, Aida; Mousavizadeh, Seyyed Javad

Applying Calcium Carbide Solution Affect Sex Expression and Increases Yield of Monoicous Cucumber

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of Horticulture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

Abstract

Sex expression in cucumber is influenced by hormonal and environmental factors such as day length and temperature. Increasing female flowers that will develop to fruit is a trick for increasing yield, hence it’s importance. Likewise, it would help breeders through hybridizing process. Ethylene as a plant hormone is known to increase female flowers of most members of Cucurbitaceae family but as an exception increase in watermelon’s female flowers reported under the effect of gibberlic acid. Ethylene is a gaseous ubiquitous phyto-hormone that is known to influence sex expression in cucumber. As acetylene’s chemical structure with a minor difference is almost similar to gaseous hormone ethylene, in higher concentrations it is expected to retain the same physiological effects as ethylene. This experiment evaluated the effect of foliar application of different concentration of liquid solution of acetylene (0, 50, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ppm) released from calcium carbide on cucumber sex expression and other physiological traits of cucumber. Results showed that number of female flowers and some vegetative traits of cucumber affected by different concentration of acetylene solution. Maximum number of female flowers obtained by applying 500 ppm of acetylene solution. The maximum leaf area and chlorophyll content of fruit achieved by application of 250 ppm and the maximum number of internodes obtained by 500 ppm acetylene solution. In conclusion, using acetylene as the solution form has not been reported until now. Foliar spraying of acetylene increased the female flowers in cucumber. The highest yield linked with 250 ppm of acetylene solution.

Keywords

References

Abbasi NA, Zahoor M, Khan HA and Qureshi AA, 2012. Effect of encapsulated calcium carbide application at different growth stage on potato (Solanum tubersum L.) growth, yield and tuber quality. Pakistan Journal of Botany 44 (5): 1543-1550.

Ahmad Z, Azam F, Mahmood T, Arshad M and Nadeem S, 2004. Use of plant growth regulators (PGRs) in enhancing crop productivity: effect of CaC2 as a source of ethylene on some agronomic parameters of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Journal of Agronomy 3 (1): 68-71.

Akhter MJ, Arshad M, Khalid A and Yaseen M, 2004. Effect of calcium carbide derived ethylene on growth and yield of rice. Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences 2 (1): 85-88.

Bassett MJ, 1986. Breeding Vegetable Crops. AVI Publisher Company, Westport.

Byers RE, Baker LR, Sell HM, Herner RC and Dilley DR, 1972. Ethylene: a natural regulator of sex expression of Cucumis melo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 69 (3): 717-720.

Dugardeyn J and van Der Straeten D, 2008. Ethylene: fine-tuning plant growth and development by stimulation and inhibition of elongation. Plant Science 175 (1): 59-70.

Iwahori S, Lyons JM and Smith OE, 1970. Sex expression in cucumber plants as affected by 2 chloroethyl phosphonic acid, ethylene and growth regulators. Plant Physiology 46 (3): 412-415.

Kiełkowska A, 2013. Sex expression in monoecious cucumbers micro propagated in vitro. Biologia Plantarum 57 (4): 725-731.

Mashayekhi K, Shomali A and Mousavizadeh SJ, 2015. Acetylene resembling effect of ethylene on seed germination: evaluating the effect of acetylene released from calcium carbide. Notulae Scientia Biologicae 7 (3): 334-337.

Matsubara S, 1977. In vitro modification of sex expression of cucumber by plant growth regulators. Scientific Reports of the Faculty of Agriculture, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan, 15-23.

Rudich J, Halevy AH and Kedar N, 1972. Ethylene evolution from cucumber plants as related to sex expression. Plant Physiology 49 (6): 998-999.

Siddiq S, Yaseen M, Arshad M and Ahmed N, 2012. Effect of calcium carbide on photosynthetic characteristics, growth and yield of tomato cultivars. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 49 (4): 505-510.

Siddiq S, Yaseen M, Mehdi SAR, Khalid A and Kashif S, 2009. Growth and yield response of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) to soil applied calcium carbide and L-methionine. Pakistan Journal of Botany 41 (5): 2455-2464.

Taiz L and Zeiger E, 2002. Plant Physiology. 3rd edition. Sinauer Associates, 690 pages.

Tanurdzic M and Banks JA, 2004. Sex-determining mechanisms in land plants. The Plant Cell 16 (suppl. 1): S61-S71.

Tholen D, Voesenek LA and Poorter H, 2004. Ethylene insensitivity does not increase leaf area or relative growth rate in Arabidopsis, Nicotiana tabacum and Petunia x hybrida. Plant Physiology 134 (4): 1803-1812.

Yamasaki S, Fujii N, Matsuura S, Mizusawa H and Takahashi H, 2001. The M locus and ethylene controlled sex determination in andromonoecious cucumber plants. Plant and Cell Physiology 42 (6): 608-619.

Zhang J, Boualem A, Bendahmane A and Ming R, 2014. Genomics of sex determination. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 18: 110-116.

Zhang W, Hu W and Wen CK, 2010. Ethylene preparation and its application to physiological experiments. Plant Signaling and Behavior 5 (4): 453-457.