Effect of Light on Flowering of Fruit Crops Ghosh Arkendu1,*, Dey Koyel1,**, Das Suddhasuchi2,***, Dutta Piyali1,**** 1Department of Fruits and Orchard Management, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal-741252 2Department of Spices and Plantation Crops, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal-741252 *email: ghoshranasonai@gmail.com
** koyeldey02@gmail.com
*** das.suddhasuchi@gmail.com
**** mithi.rani11@gmail.com
Online published on 15 December, 2016. Abstract Flowering, the first step of sexual reproduction is of paramount importance in agriculture, horticulture and plant breeding. It is a photoperiodic phenomenon, that is, a response which is controlled by the duration and quantity of light. In plants, the duration of the photoperiod or the dark period that ultimately determines whether they gothrough vegetative growth or produce flowers. Different fruit crops (Tropical, Sub-tropical and Temperate) require different periods of light or dark for full flowering. If that period falls short then plants do not produce cent per cent flowering. Such requirement of a minimum of photoperiod or dark period for effective flowering is called critical day period. The length of light and dark period requirement for different fruit plants varies and they respond to the light treatment only when they grow to certain vegetative maturity. If plant is subjected to certain length of day period and night period in 24–36 hours duration, then it is called one photoperiodic cycle. Such periodic cycle which is responsible for inducing flower formation, is referred to as ‘photo inductive cycle’. The required number of photo inductive cycles varies from species to species because of inherent genetic makeup of the specific plant. Systematic studies, using different lengths of light and dark period, indicated that the dark period is very important for short day plants for flowering. Shortening of photoperiod has profound influence on the quantitative yield of flowers. Similarly if CO2 supply is cut off during photosynthetic period, the short day plants in spite of receiving proper dark and light periods do not produce flowers to their maximum ability. Top Keywords Flowering, Fruit crops, Light, Photoperiodism, Phytochrome. Top |