TEMPERATURE DURING EARLY DEVELOPMENT AFFECTS PLANT MORPHOLOGY OF BEGONIA × HIEMALIS
The effect of temperature during the initial long day period on morphology and plant dry weight was determined for Begonia × hiemalis `Hilda'. Multistem cuttings were planted in 10 cm pots and grown at 13°, 16°, 19°, 22°, 25° or 28°C. The day length was 16 hours at an irradiance level of 280 ± 20 μmol·m-2s-1. After 21 days, the plants were moved to a greenhouse maintained at 20° ± 2°C and short days of 10 hours at 125 ± 20 μmol·m-2s-1. The plants were grown under short days for 14 days and then moved to a day length of 16 hours. At data collection 21 days later (56 days from planting), plant height averaged 185 mm for plants initially grown at 13°, 16°, 19° or 22°C while pants originally grown at 25° and 28°C were 40 and 78 mm shorter than plants started at lower temperatures. The mean number of shoots was 4 on plants exposed to 16°, 19°, 22° or 25°C during early development and decrease to 3 shoots for plants grown initially at 13° or 28°C. The average flower number on the main shoot was similar for plants first exposed to low and intermediate temperatures but decreased rapidly to 0 for plants with early exposure to 28°C. Plants in treatments with early temperatures of 19° or 22°C had the largest above ground dry weight at an average 460 mg.