Effects of nitrogen on development and growth of the leaves of vegetables. 3. Appearance and expansion growth of leaves of spinach

Abstract

In a series of greenhouse and field trials, spinach cv. Trias plants were supplied with different amounts of N fertilizer in various split applications. Rates of leaf emergence and expansion were recorded, as well as final leaf size. The rate of leaf appearance varied between 0.16 and 0.57/day across experiments, but was hardly affected by N treatment. The rate of leaf expansion and mature leaf area increased with leaf number, reaching maximum values at leaf pair 3+4 or 5+6 and decreasing subsequently. Both characteristics were positively correlated with N supply. The duration of expansion was not influenced by N treatments and varied between 15 and 30 days in most experiments. The rate of leaf expansion was the main factor determining mature leaf size. Specific leaf area over all green leaves slowly decreased with time in most experiments and was around 300 cmsuperscript 2/g. As the differences in the number of leaves were small, the differences in total green leaf area per plant resulted from differences in the areas of individual mature leaves.