Vol. 70 No: 2

Title:
Root and Shoot Growth and Chlorophyll Content of Taraxacum officinale Provenances as Affected by Defoliation and Debudding Under Organic and Hydroponic Cultivation

Authors:
W. LETCHAMO and A. GOSSELIN

pp: 279-286

Abstract:
Plants of three dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) provenances were grown under hydroponic and organic methods to study the effects of defoliation and debudding on root growth and chlorophyll content. Root dry weight for all three provenances was significantly higher in a hydroponic growing system than organically grown variants (P≤0.001). The highest root production (44.4 g per plant) was obtained from disbudded variants of hydroponically grown ‘Laval-1’, while under organic cultivation, debudded ‘RH-96’ produced the highest root dry matter (30.2 g per plant). The lowest root yield was obtained from defoliated plants in both growing media (P≤0.001). There was a clear cultivar difference in response to the treatments (P≤0.001). Debudded ‘laval-1’ under hydroponic growing medium had 131% more root yield whereas ‘RH-96’ had only a 79% increase compared with the untreated control variants. Debudding or defoliation resulted in a mean shift of shoot/root ratio from 4.2 to 1.3 under hydroponic and 2.7 to 1.1 under organic cultivation, favouring the root growth. Higher chlorophyll content was recorded for plants grown in the hydroponic system. With increasing root yield, chlorophyll content fell.

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