The effects of plant density and shading on some agricultural traits of salep orchid (serapias vomeracea (burm.F.) briq.”)

Abstract

Serapias vomeracea is a valuable plant from the Orchidaceae family, especially in that its tubers are used to make hot drinks. In this study, the plants were grown in field conditions, and it was investigated in detail for the first time to determine the effect of plant density and shading on some agronomic traits of S. vomeracea. The five levels of plant density (20×10 cm, 20×5 cm, 10×10 cm, 10×6.6 and 10×5 cm) and three levels of shading (Control, 55% and 75%) were tested. The plants were harvested for new tubers in full flowering period. As a result of the study, the shading was effective on the dry matter ratio (P<0.05) and ash ratio (P<0.01) in the tubers while plant density was effective on plant height (P<0.01), panicle length (P<0.01), number of flowers per panicle (P<0.05), dry matter ratio (P<0.01), and ash ratio (P<0.01) in the tubers. It is possible to see the dominant effect of plant density on the investigated traits in the dendrogram created by cluster analysis. The results of the cluster analysis showed that the plant densities of 20×5 cm and 20×10 cm, the density of 10×10 cm and, the densities of 10×5 cm and 10×6.6 cm were distributed into three different clusters. Positive and significant correlations were found between tuber yield per plant and number of flowers per panicle (r=0.633*), number of roots per plant (r=0.728**), and number of leaves per plant (r=0.745**).