Abstract
It has been demonstrated that the coloring area rate of a picotee petal of Eustoma grandiflorum (Raf.) Shinn. is affected by temperature and the rate increases remarkably at constant 20°C temperature. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the amount of fertilizer applied, the coloring area rate in picotee petals and the cut flower characters of ‘Candy Marin’. Fertilizer application influenced the picotee coloring area rate under temperatures of 20°C and 22°C, but the effect was uncertain at 25°C. The coloring area rate increased on the temperature and fertilizer condition, which increased the amount of growth indicated by cut flower weight and the node number of the main stem. In addition, 12 cultivars with different picotee stabilities were grown under constant 20°C temperature. The coloring area rate increased with the amount of applied fertilizer. The cut flower weight and the numbers of nodes on the main stem also increased. The remarkable differences in the increase degree of the coloring area rate with fertilizer application between cultivars were observed. Therefore, the coloring area rate of a picotee petal of Eustoma was influenced by fertilizer application, but the degree of influence was differed depending on the picotee formation stability of each cultivar.
