Stimulation of flowering by grafted black spruce and white spruce: a comparative study of the effects of gibberellin A4/7, cultural treatments, and environment
Flower stimulation treatments, including gibberellin A4/7 (GA4/7) application, root-pruning, and greenhouse environment during the latter part of shoot elongation, were applied to grafted, clonal black spruce (Piceamariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) and white spruce (Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss) of roughly the same size and age. In addition, the size of pot-grown ramets of both species was increased by inducing additional growth cycles by several applications of a chilling treatment followed by an 18-h photoperiod in a heated greenhouse. This treatment doubled the height growth of both species over a 2-year period, and female cone bud production was promoted by GA4/7. GA4/7 also promoted female flowering on field-grown material, but root-pruning had little effect; black spruce was more responsive to GA4/7 (10× increase) than white spruce (3× increase). Male flowering in black spruce was consistently, and sometimes significantly, inhibited by GA4/7, but was promoted in white spruce. In the latter case the response was not statistically significant. In contrast, male flowering was increased in potted trees of both species by allowing shoots to elongate 50–75% outdoors, after which the trees were moved into a greenhouse.