Dynamics of biomass partitioning in field-grown radish varieties, treated with ethylenediurea

During the growing season of 1990, five staggered crops of radish (Raphanus sativus L.) were grown in the field, using the cultivars 'Cherry Belle', 'Red Prince', and 'Red Devil B'. Half of the plants received a soil drench (100 ml plant(-1); 100 mg litre(-1) of ethylenediurea (EDU) once, early in plant development. Destructive harvests were carried out at 2-day intervals during vegetative development. Non-linear growth kinetics, derived from Richards' function, were fitted to the dry weight data of the total plant, main organs (shoot and hypocotyl) and to the dry weight ratio between below-ground and above-ground organs. Estimating the parameters of these non-linear functions and testing their differences between EDU-treated and untreated plants unveiled biologically meaningful information on the impact of different levels of ambient ozone (O(3)) during the growth periods. The modified function which was applied to the data of biomass partitioning between the major plant parts was more powerful in detecting transient alterations in assimilate allocation compared to the growth dynamics of individual plant organs. At low levels of O(3), biomass partitioning towards the below-ground sink organs was slightly delayed and finally restricted in EDU-treated plants. When ambient O(3) reached moderate levels, which did not cause visible foliar injury, assimilate partitioning between organs was only insignificantly altered during early growth when EDU-treatments were compared. As growth progressed, however, less assimilates were allocated towards the hypocotyl and roots in the plants not protected by EDU. This pattern was similar in all cultivars tested, but was smallest in 'Cherry Belle', which is known to be sensitive to O(3) with respect to foliar injury. During the 15- to 19-day periods of rapid growth, the O(3)-exposure >80 nl litre(-1) ranged from 0.015 to 0.209 microl litre(-1) O(3) h, which corresponds to 7 h d(-1) mean values between 40 and 50 nl litre(-1) O(3), confirming that ambient ozone did not exceed a moderate level in this study.