An empirical model for water uptake and root development of poinsettia cuttings

摘要

Little research exists to support the hypothesis that water uptake of cuttings increases with root development. The objectives of this project were to: 1) develop a thermal model of transpiration during rooting of poinsettia cuttings based on temperature of the root zone, 2) correlate rooting development to the root zone temperature, and 3) correlate water uptake to the rooting stage of the cuttings. Several results have been obtained thus far in a preliminary experiment. First, adventitious root development is certainly temperature dependent. The optimum media temperature in a preliminary experiment was approximately 25 deg C. Also, the thermogradient table developed for this study was proven to be effective in achieving a range of media temperatures as desired, thus, providing a simple method for comparing the effects of many media temperatures. This paper includes discussion of the rationale and background of the project, experimental methods, preliminary results, challenges encountered, and future research directions.