Differences in Yield of Cuttings and Cultivation Performance between Virus-Free and Virus-Infected Plants of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana

摘要

This publication describes experiments with stock plants and pot-plant production to quantify the performance of virus-free plants of four cultivars of Kalanchoe compared to plants infected with Kalanchoe mosaic virus (KMV). Virus infection with KMV affected the production of cuttings in sensitive cultivars. The total fresh weight of cuttings produced by virus-infected stock plants of the cultivar 'Charm' was up to 40.6% lower than the total fresh weight of cuttings produced by virus-free stock plants.The less sensitive cultivars had negligible or no fresh or dry weight reduction. The sensitive cultivar 'Charm' had a seven days shorter production period from rooting to flowering as compared to virus-free plants of the same cultivar grown during theautumn. From our results we can conclude that KMV affects a sensitive cultivar as 'Charm' in autumn and winter; but the virus infection has less or no effect on cutting production and time to flowering in the less sensitive cultivars. The recovery and tolerance to virus infection is most pronounced in spring and summer.