Biological substances as stimulants-inducing growth, flowering, and chemical constituents in Dahlia plants

Abstract

A potting experiment was conducted was carried out during the two consecutive seasons of 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 to investigate the impact of various bio-stimulant treatments, specifically salicylic acid (SA), ascorbic acid (AA), and Moringa oleifera leaf extract (MLE), as well as their combinations on plant growth, flowering and chemical composition of Dahlia pinnata plants cultivated in sandy soils. The study utilized an experimental design followed by a complete block design with three replications having eight treatments as follows: control, 300 mg/l SA, 300 mg/l AA, 10 mg/l MLE, SA+AA, SA+MLE, AA+MLE, and SA+AA+MLE. The results indicated that the application of various bio-stimulant treatments, either individually or in combination, resulted in enhanced vegetative growth characteristics, flowering attributes, and tuberous root production, as well as improved chemical constituents when compared to untreated plants. In addition, the most effective treatment combinations were found to be MLE + SA + AA, followed by SA + MLE, based on overall outcomes.

Keywords:

• Dahlia pinnata
• Moringa oleifera leaf extracts
• salicylic acid
• ascorbic acid
• growth
• flowering
• tuberous roots

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, E.A.S.; methodology, E.A.S., M.A.A.A. and R.G.E.; software, E.A.S., M.A.A.A. and R.G.E.; formal analysis, E.A.S., M.A.A.A. and R.G.E.; investigation, E.A.S., R.J.B. and R.G.E.; resources, E.A.S., M.A.A.A. and R.G.E.; writing—original draft preparation, E.A.S., M.A.A.A. and R.G.E.; writing—review and editing, M.A.A.A. and R.J.B. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Also, all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Conflicts  of interest

All the authors declared that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work received no external funding.