EVALUATION OF SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS IN INDUSTRIAL HEMP AFTER PHYTOHORMONAL TREATMENT

Abstract

Plant growth and development is significantly influenced by phytohormones –endogenous molecules present naturally in plants. The best known plant hormones are auxins and cytokinins. This study examined the possible effect of externally applied plant hormone analogues (growth regulators): 1-naphthyl acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) on industrial fibre hemp (Cannabis sativaL., variety Bialobrzeskie). Plants were treated with three different concentrations of NAA (5, 10 and 20 mg/l) and threedifferent concentrations of BAP (10, 25 and 50 mg/l). Morphological and physiological characteristics, such as apical dominance, shoot branching, fibre properties, and flavonoid content were evaluated. The chosen variety of hemphad a significant responseto exogenous application of growth regulators, as has been observed with other plant species. Most notably, completely understood and controlled synthetic auxin tretament has a potential to increase the bark fibre yield of hemp