Effects of a dwarfing compound, CCC, on the production and export of gibberellin-like substances by root systems.

(2-Chloroethyl)trimethylammonium chloride (Cycocel or CCC), an inhibitor of gibberellin biosynthesis, when repeatedly supplied to the root systems of balsam (Impatiens glandulifera Royle) plants reduces growth in height and the level of gibberellin-like substances in the bleeding sap that exudes from the stumps of detopped plants. Within twelve hours after a single application of the inhibitor to decapitated field peas (Pisum arvense), there are quantitative and qualitative changes in the gibberellins of the sap compared with those in sap collected over the same period of time from untreated plants. These changes are interpreted in terms of the possible blockage by CCC of normal gibberellin production and diversion of precursors into synthesis of "abnormal" gibberellins.