The Effects of Potassium Chlorate on CO2 Concentration in the Root Zone Stomata Conductance and Fruit Quality of Longan
Keywords:
Dimocarpus longan, CO2 in root zone, potassium chlorate, fruit quality, stomatal conductanceAbstract
It was generally believed that treating longan trees with potassium chlorate (KClO3) could induce physiological stress to the trees. However, there is a limited information on such physiological stress in longan. This research was aimed at studying the effects of the physiological stress of longan trees treated with KClO3 on fruit quantity and quality. Physiological stress indexes investigated in this study were the level of CO2 concentration in the root zone and stomatal conductance of the trees. This research was conducted on 6 healthy longan trees from each of the two locations, one a farmer’s orchard in Phao district with 15 years old trees and another at Maejo University (MJU) farm with 10 years old. The study was conducted from November 2014 to September 2016. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design with two treatments and three replications. The two treatments were applications of KClO3 at the rate of 800-1,000 g/tree and un-treated and each longan tree in each farm was considered as a replication. The results revealed that CO2 concentration in the root zone and leaves stomatal conductance during booming to harvesting were higher in the treated than in the un-treated trees. It was also found in both orchards that CO2 concentrations in the root zone soil were positively correlated with soil water content. Therefore, these findings indicated that the optimum concentration of KCIO3 treatment and soil moisture level had the effects on the stress conditions without affecting the physiological growth of longan. In addition, it was found that quality of fruit of the treated trees in Phao orchard was not significantly different from that of the un-treated trees. In addition, it was found that fruit weight per tree; peel, flesh and seed weights; and peel thickness of the fruits from the un-treated trees at MJU farm were significantly higher than those of treated trees. On the other hand, total soluble solid of the treated trees were significant higher than those of un-treated trees. Therefore, the proper orchard management including optimum irrigation to keep good balance of soil moisture which able to promote the root activities, together with optimum application of KClO3, would induce good flowering and fruit set without affecting the fruit quality.
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