Commercial use of Plant Hormones Flashcards
Why are artificial auxins useful?
They can be used to prevent leaf and fruit ‘drop’ and to promote flowering for commercial flower production. Useful if there are too many small fruit that will be difficult to sell - the plant then produces fewer, large fruit.
Give other uses for auxins.
Rooting powder.
Treating unpollinated flowers with auxin can promote growth of seedless fruit.
auxins are used as herbicides to kill weeds.
What are cytokinins used for commercially?
Because they can delay leaf senescence, they are sometimes used to prevent yellowing of lettuce leaves after they have been picked.
Tissue culture to help mass-produce plants.
Cytokinins promote bud and shoot growth from small pieces of tissue taken from a parent plant.
How are gibberellins used commercially in fruit production?
Delay senescence in fruit, extending times fruit can be left unpicked, and making them available for longer in shops.
Gibberellins actin with cytokinins can make apples elongate and improve their shape.
Without gibberellins bunches of grapes are very compact restricting the growth of individual grapes. With gibberellins, the grape stalks elongate and they are less compact.
