Effects of plant growth regulators on the germination characteristics of ginger

BAI Yafan; KUANG Yidi; ZHANG Dajiang; YANG Wenjie; GUO Fengling; WU Jinping

doi:10.16861/j.cnki.zggc.2025.0396

Abstract：This study utilized ginger cultivar Jinfeng No.1 as the experimental material,aiming to address the production problem of low uniformity of robust buds in ginger rhizome block seedling raising.To optimize the germination technolo-gy of cut ginger rhizomes,high-efficiency plant growth regulators in both single-agent and combined formulations were screened.Initially,six plant growth regulators were evaluated individually,those with potential synergistic effects were further formulated into binary or ternary compound combinations,resulting in 16 mixed formulations.A total of 23 treat-ments were established,including the single agents,compound combinations,and water as control,to investigate their ef-fects on germination rate,bud length,bud thickness,germination potential,and germination index of ginger rhizome blocks.The results indicated that both the application of 0.5 mg·L-1 ethephon(ETH)alone and its ternary combination with 2 mg·L-1 indoleacetic acid(IAA)and 0.2 mg·L-1 brassinolide(BR)(ETH+IAA+BR)significantly promoted bud growth.The two treatments achieved bud lengths of 13.66 and 12.68 mm,respectively,with corresponding bud thicknesses reaching 8.25 and 8.27 mm,and both attained 100％germination rate.The binary combination of thiourea and ethephon(TU+ETH)achieved 100％germination potential and a germination index of 2.50,which significantly improved the uni-formity of germination.In contrast,gibberellin(GA3)applied alone or in compound formulations exhibited inhibitory ef-fects on ginger germination,with bud lengths ranging from 3.55 to 5.42 mm and the lowest germination rate being only 66.67％.The multi-index comprehensive evaluation based on the entropy weight TOPSIS method further demonstrated that the ETH+IAA+BR treatment(relative closeness coefficient:0.907)and the TU+ETH treatment(relative closeness coefficient:0.869)ranked highest,exhibiting favorable overall sprouting performance,whereas the GA3 treatment yielded a relative closeness coefficient of only 0.108,indicating a pronounced inhibitory effect.In conclusion,ethephon and its compound combinations can serve as efficient germination-promoting schemes for cut ginger rhizomes,providing scientif-ic basis and technical support for improving the rate of robust buds in ginger production.It is recommended that in pro-duction practice,priority should be given to the application of either 0.5 mg·L-1 ethephon alone or the compound combina-tion of 2 g·L-1 thiourea plus 0.5 mg·L-1 ethephon,and the use of GA3-based agents should be avoided.