Breaking Tuber Dormancy in Helianthus tuberosus L. and Interspecific Hybrids of Helianthus annuus L. × Helianthus tuberosus

Tubers of Helianthus tuberosus L. are dormant after production in the late fall until the next spring. In the wild, tuber dormancy is broken after exposure to winter cold, resulting in sprouting and shoot development in the spring when conditions are favorable. The dormancy period typically limits H. tuberosus populations to one growth cycle per year. An efficient method for breaking tuber dormancy is needed to have an additional growth cycle per year in a breeding program, which could take place in winter in the nursery or the greenhouse allowing for increased breeding efficiency. The objective of this research was to compare chemical and cold temperature treatments for artificially breaking tuber dormancy in 12 genotypes of H. tuberosus and interspecific hybrids of Helianthus annuus L. × H. tuberosus . Five cold exposures (2, 4, 6, 8, 10 weeks at 2 °C), three plant hormones (ethylene, cytokinin, and gibberellic acid), and one untreated control were examined. Gibberellic acid was the best chemical treatment, initiating plant growth within 6.5 to 11.5 days in the majority of genotypes tested. The best cold treatment was exposure to 2 °C for 8 weeks, where plant growth began 63.6 to 67.5 days after treatment initiation. Although longer cold treatments shortened the time to emergence while in the greenhouse, the penalty of the long cold treatment per se was too long to be useful. The gibberellic acid treatment strategy described here may not need further optimization, because it is short enough to allow for two growth cycles of H. tuberosus per year.