Study on Lily Longevity Treated with Growth Regulator (GA and BA) by Path Analysis

In order to study growth and flowering characteristics of Lilium longiflorum by using two growth regulators, gibberellic acid and 6-benzyladenin, an experiment was performed in 2008 by using factorial experiment arranged in a completely randomized design with three replication in research greenhouse, college of agricultural science, University of Guilan. In this experiment, bulbs soaked for 24 hours by gibberellic acid and 6-benzyladenin and then they planted in greenhouse. Variance analysis showed that the effect of gibberellic acid and interaction effect of these growth regulators in total chlorophyll content and longevity of lily, the effect of gibberellic acid and 6-benzyladenin in initial fresh weight, the effect of gibberellic acid and interaction effect of these hormones in carotenoid content and also anthocyanin content were significant. The simple phenotypic correlation coefficient between lily flower longevity and other traits showed that longevity of lily flowers had the highest significant positive correlation with fresh weight in 9th day, total anthocyanin content, initial fresh weight, leaf area, fresh weight in 12th day, total number of flower bud, carotenoid content, bud length and stem height respectively. To determin the most important independent variables that had the highest effects on the dependent variable, we use stepwise regression model. 50.4% of longevity variation was attributed to tow traits, including total anthocyanin content and initial fresh weight. Path analysis showed that total anthocyanin content had the highest direct effect on longevity (p= 0.431). Indirect effect of total anthocyanin content by initial fresh weight was positive. Direct effect of initial fresh weight (p= 0.422) considered as secondary traits in longevity path analysis. Indirect effect of initial fresh weight by total anthocyanin content was positive.

Anthocyanin % Fresh weight % Lilium % Longevity % Path analysis