Abstract

VICTOR-GOMEZ, Emmanuel et al. Floral stimulation in prickly pear cactus in response to the effect of Thidiazuron. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2020, vol.11, n.3, pp.519-529.  Epub Aug 30, 2021. ISSN 2007-0934.  https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v11i3.1995.

On average, the yield of prickly pear Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. is low, being 5.5 t ha-1 year-1. The prickly pear cactus cladodes have only budding in the periphery, representing 30% of total sprouts/cladode, wasting the lateral spaces of the stem. Employing biostimulant in conjunction with plastic cover and irrigation to increase flower budding and yield is the objective of this research. 4-year-old ‘Roja purpura’ cactus plants were used, with a planting distance of 3 x 4 m. There were two factors: 1) Thidiazuron dose: 0 ppm, 400 ppm, 800 ppm. 2) Joint plastic cover with irrigation: without cover and without irrigation, without cover and with irrigation, with irrigation and without cover, with irrigation and with cover, in a 3x4 factorial arrangement, with 12 treatments and three repetitions in divided plots. The experimental unit was a group of four cladodes. At 44 days after applying Thidiazuron, the 800 ppm TDZ treatment obtained a higher percentage of flower sprouts with 53.9%, followed by irrigation cover and 400 ppm of TDZ with 46.8%, exceeding 12.7% of the control. Twenty-two days after the application of TDZ, the plants with plastic cover began to revert flower sprouts to vegetative, this phenomenon and the appearance of new sprouts, both vegetative and floral, stopped 44 days after applying TDZ, this suggests that the cover at raising and maintaining high temperature could stimulate vegetative sprouting and cause floral reversal.

Keywords : cladode; floral reversal; lateral sprouting.

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