ABSTRACT:

Dieffenbachia breeding has been hindered by sporadic flowering and the small number of inflorexcences per plant. In attempting to surmount this problem we initiated experments to see if it would be possible to control flowering using the plant hormone gibberellic acid (GA3,. The study was conducted on full-sized plants of Dieffenbachia maculata 'Perfection' grown in 6-inch pots. Treated plants were sprayed on their upper and lower leaf surfaces until runoff with either 250, 500 or 1000 parts per million GA3 while control plants were sprayed with water only. Ten plants were tested at each of the four GA3 levels and plants were maintained in a greenhouse held at 65-90oF temperature range. GA 3 was tested because it had previously been shown to induce flowering in many crops as well as some aroids (1,2,3,4).