Effect of growth regulators and role of roots in sex expression in spinach.

When 7-d-old plantlets of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) were immersed with their roots for 24 h in 25 mg/l gibberellic acid (GA3), or 15 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP), or 15 mg/l indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), or 10 mg/l abscisic acid (ABA) and subsequently grown on long (18-h) days, the ratio of plants with male and female flowers, which in the controls was almost 1:1 (48 and 52%, respectively), was greatly altered. The treatments with 6-BAP, IAA and ABA raised the percentage of female plants to 88, 76 and 71%, respectively; the GA3 treatment increased the percent of male plants to 79%. When young, vegetative spinach plants (3 visible leaves) grown in 18-h days were cut a the root neck, and the shoots grown with their bases in nutrient solution, with adventitious roots either being allowed to develop or being systematically removed, 85% of the plants without roots became males, 85% of those with roots became females. But if the cut shoots were first, for 28 h, placed in a 15-mg/l 6-BAP solution and then grown in the absence of roots, the percent of female plants was restored to 84. These results fully agree with those obtained previously with hemp, namely, that plant growth regulators exert a regulating effect on the sex expression of dioecious plants when applied through the roots in early stages of development; that the root system plays an important role in determining the sex of these plants, that this role of the roots is associated with the synthesis of cytokinins in them. Dioecious short- and long-day plants do not differ in these respects.