After plant removal from the culture medium, their roots
were washed to eliminate agar and then transplanted into
plastic pots filled with Cosmopeat® and Agrolite® (3:1).
Pots were covered with transparent plastic bags to maintain
high levels of humidity and transferred to greenhouse
conditions with minimum and maximum temperatures of
19/30 °C night/day, under light conditions of 650 ± mol m-2
s-1 and 13 h photoperiods. Plants were watered daily and
fertilized weekly with a solution of 170 mg L-1 of soluble
fertilizer (19N-19P-19K; Haifa Chemicals, Ltd.). After 18,
25 and 32 d the seedlings were sprayed with solutions of
salicylic acid (Merck®) prepared at three concentrations
(1.0, 0.01 and 0.0001 μM). Distilled water was applied as a
control. Tween 20® was added to the solution as a surfactant.
A completely random experimental design was used
with 10 replicates per treatment.
Number of leaves and total leaf area (LI-3000A Leaf Area
Meter; Li-COR, Inc.) were recorded 100 d after the first SA
application; days to flowering were also recorded (when 50 % of the plants had opened their flowers). The total number
of flowers was registered each week and the length and
width of the flowers were measured in cm with a ruler. Data
were analyzed using ANOVA (SAS, 2004).