Abstract
An experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effects of exogenous polyamines (PAs) on the development of mycorrhizae in roots, nutrient uptake and vegetative and reproductive growth of Freesia hybrida ‘Golden Wave’. Corms of freesia were inoculated with Rhizophagus intraradices at sowing time and treated once a week by one of three PAs, putrescine (Put), spermidine or spermine, in concentrations of 0.05 and 0.1 mM each as foliar application or soil drench. Application of PAs, especially as soil drench, increased mycorrhizal colonization as well as the growth and development of inoculated plants. Among the three PAs, Put in 0.1 mM concentration was the most effective in increasing colonization, enhancing floral stem length and diameter, floral spike length, floret number on main and lateral spikes and increasing corm and cormlet weight, corm diameter and cormlet number. Sole application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi had no significant effect on the flowering time but soil drench with 0.1 mM Put accelerated flowering by about 17 days. Application of PAs elevated leaves N, P, K, Mg, Fe and Zn and corms’ P, K, Ca, Fe and Zn concentration of inoculated plants. Our results suggest that soil drench application of PAs, especially Put, positively influenced mycorrhizal inoculation and nutrient uptake, which leads to improving growth, flower and corm production and quality of mycorrhizal plants of freesia.