Water Relations, Hormonal Level, and Spectral Reflectance of Gerbera jamesonii BoluS Subjected to Chilling Stress

One-year-old gerbera plants subjected to 1 night at 5C had reduced leaf water losses and chlorophyll content and increased root hydraulic resistance, but stomatal conductance and leaf water potential did not change. After 3 nights, leaf water potential had decreased and leaf reflectance in the visible and the near-infrared had increased. Similarly, abscisic acid (ABA) in leaves had increased and cytokinins (CK) in leaves and roots had decreased, but ABA levels in roots did not change. After 4 days at 20C, root hydraulic resistance, reflectance and leaf water loss returned to their initial values, but leaf water potential and chlorophyll content remained lower. Leaf ABA levels reached values lower than the initial, while root ABA and leaf CK levels retained the initial values. These data suggest that in the gerbera plants studied, 3 nights at 5C produced a reversible strain but otherwise plants remained uninjured, so this gerbera variety could be cultured with low energetic inputs under Mediterranean conditions. The results may indicate that ABA and CK were acting as synergistic signals of the chilling stress. Spectral reflectance signals seemed to be useful as plant chilling injury indicators at ground level.