Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Yield response of bolted spider plant (Cleome gynandra) to deflowering and application of nitrogen top dressing

Author(s):

Sydney Mavengahama

Recieved Date: 2013-05-10, Accepted Date: 2013-10-20

Abstract:

Cleome gynandra is consumed as a vegetable in various parts of the world including Africa. The plant is also used as a medicinal herb for the treatment of various human diseases. Among wild vegetables, C. gynandra has been reported to flower prematurely, a phenomenon known as bolting and common in many vegetable crops. Premature flowering (bolting) can be as a response to temperature extremes and photoperiod and affects many other leafy vegetables such as lettuce (Lactuca sativa), spinach (Spinacea oleracea) and mustard rape (Brassica juncea). Bolting leads to production losses in leaf vegetable crops as they flower before they have produced an economic yield. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of removal of flowers and the application of nitrogen top dressing on the leaf yield of bolted C. gynandra plants so as to salvage the flowered seedlings.  The removal of flowers and nitrogen application resulted in significant increases in the fresh and dry weight of cleome leaves. The removal of flowers resulted in a 46% increase fresh weight of leaves. The observed positive response of leaf yield to the removal of flowers offers a possible way to deal with the problem of bolting. The continuous removal of the flowers leads to increased utilisable leaf yield. The application of incremental amounts of nitrogen top dressing results in increased leaf yield in C. gynandra.

Keywords:

Bolting, deflowering, nitrogen, Cleome gynandra, wild vegetable, leaf yield

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 3&4
Category: Agriculture
Pages: 1372-1374

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