Performance of lisianthus varieties in a shaded environment

Lysianthus cultivation is a recent activity when compared to the main cut flowers, and little is known about the techniques and the use of shading screens that can increase productivity in floriculture, resulting in favorable morphophysiological responses to the crop. The objective of this study was to verify whether shading screens impact the growth performance of lisianthus varieties. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse in São Benedito farm, located in São Benedito, Ceará. The varieties studied were Lisianthus ABC 2-3 Blue, Lisianthus Allemade White and Lisianthus ABC 2-3 Rose, and three environments, one with aluminized screen (AS), one with red screen (RS) and the third environment without screen shading (WS). The experimental design was completely randomized in a 3 x 3 factorial scheme, with three environments and three varieties with three replications. The following were analyzed in cm: button diameter (BD); rod height (RH); actual size (AS); commercial size (CS); rod thickness (RT); and by counting, the number of buttons per stem (BS). The blue variety was better adapted to the conditions imposed by the AS environment, the rose variety presented the best results in the WS environment and the white variety, under the conditions of the experiment, would be unsuitable for the crop cultivation. The RS environment does not offer conditions conducive to satisfactory growth in rod size. Lysianthus cultivation is influenced by the use of shading screens.