ABSTRACT
Application of chemicals to plants in order to promote or inhibit their flowering has been part of the most popular kind of empirical investigation, properly named "spray and pray". Exogenous compounds were used in order to alter the endogenous balance of trophic or regulatory materials in order to obtain information on the biochemical environments associated with promotion or inhibition of flower initiation. The probability of interactions, such as chelation, increases with the number of components and is probably greatest in the complex culture media used for studies on in vitro flowering. The most common way to apply substances to plants is to spray them on the foliage. Although this method is convenient, rapid, and well-adapted for agronomic and horticultural crops, it may not be the best in fundamental studies on flower initiation. Additional evidence for a role of auxins in flower initiation was sought in investigations with auxin antagonists.
