Scientia Horticulturae 130 (2011) 510–516 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Scientia Horticulturae journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scihorti Effects of day length on flowering and yield production of Salicornia and Sarcocornia species Yvonne Ventura a , Wegi A. Wuddineh a , Muki Shpigel b , Tzachi M. Samocha c , Brandon C. Klim c , Shabtai Cohen d , Zion Shemer d , Rui Santos e , Moshe Sagi a,∗ a The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, The Albert Katz Department of Dryland Biotechnologies, Ben-Gurion University, PO Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel b National Center for Mariculture, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, PO Box 1212, Eilat 88112, Israel c Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Shrimp Mariculture Research Facility, 4301 Waldron Road, Corpus Christi, TX 78418, USA d Ramat Negev Desert Agro-Research Station, Halutza 85515, Israel e Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR), CIMAR-Laboratório Associado, FCMA, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal article info Article history: Received 8 March 2011 Received in revised form 24 June 2011 Accepted 4 August 2011 Keywords: Biomass yield Vegetable crops Repetitive harvest regime Seawater irrigation Halophytes abstract Salicornia is a new vegetable crop that can be irrigated with highly saline water, even at salt concentrations equivalent to full-strength seawater. During leafy vegetable cultivation, the onset of the reproductive phase is an undesired phenomenon that reduces yield and quality and prevents year-round cultivation. Knowledge about the regulation of floral induction in the members of the tribe Salicornieae, however, is lacking. To establish year-round cultivation, we studied the flower induction of five Salicornia and two Sarcocornia varieties. Plants were grown under two day lengths, 13.5 h and 18 h, and harvested by a repet- itive harvest regime. A 13.5-h day length prevented flower induction in the Israeli Salicornia varieties, but a longer day length was required to prevent flower induction in two species originating from more northern latitudes. The onset of the reproductive phase under suboptimal short day length conditions severely reduced vegetative growth and yields in Salicornia. In Sarcocornia, the repetitive harvest regime prevented flowering, making it a promising candidate for year-round cultivation. Irrigating the plants with full-strength seawater (electrical conductivity 48 dS m -1 ) vs. water with moderate salinity (elec- trical conductivity 10 dS m -1 ) did not change the general flowering pattern of the studied Salicornieae members. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Salicornia has long been consumed by humans as a fresh or pick- led vegetable (Chevalier, 1922; Davy et al., 2001). It has recently generated considerable interest as a new vegetable crop that can be irrigated with highly saline water and seawater (Ventura et al., 2010, 2011). The almost identical Sarcocornia is distinguished from the annual Salicornia by its distinct perennial growth habit (Davy et al., 2006) and by differences in flower arrangement (Kadereit et al., 2007). Both genera produce succulent shoots suitable for leafy vegetable production, but they differ in terms of yield and nutritional value (Ventura et al., 2010, 2011). In light of the increasing interest in Salicornia for its versatile commercial products, such as seed oil, protein meal, and fresh salad greens, the flowering pattern of Salicornia bigelovii was investi- gated (York et al., 2000). This species was found to be sensitive to photoperiod, and as such, shortening the number of hours of ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 8 6563469; fax: +972 8 6472984. E-mail address: gizi@bgu.ac.il (M. Sagi). day light (day length) resulted in flowering (Fu and Zhao, 2003; Lu et al., 2001; Zerai et al., 2010). Flower induction reduces veg- etative growth in leafy vegetables (Chweya, 1997), and therefore, it presents an important productivity parameter. At the onset of the reproductive phase, Salicornia terminal fruiting spikes are pro- duced at the shoot tips and vegetative development is retarded, which ultimately may negatively impact yield performance. More- over, flowering is undesired during Salicornia vegetable production as only young, fibreless vegetative shoots have market value. The use of photoperiodic light is a well known agro-technique to regulate flowering in horticultural crop production (Demers et al., 1998). Preventing Salicornia from entering its natural, early flower- ing mode may enable year-round market supplies to the benefit of consumers and farmers alike. Toward the development of a practice that will enable the farmer to control and regulate the vegetative to reproductive relationship, we investigated the effect of day length as a means of controlling the flowering of Salicornieae tribe mem- bers. Salinity stress, which may also affect a plant’s flowering pattern, was shown to delay flowering in Arthrocnemum fruticosum, a halo- phyte plant belonging to the tribe Salicornieae (Saad Eddin and 0304-4238/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2011.08.008