It has been well documented that extremely low concentrations of plant growth substances have the ability to regulate many aspects of plant growth and development from seed germination through senescence and death of the plant. The use of these compounds in agriculture has a great deal of potential in regulating many if not all plant physiological processes and with time their commercial use for these purposes may become a reality. However at the present time the use of plant growth -substances is in its infancy stage of development. This becomes quite evident when reviewing the literature in the area of plant growth regulating compounds where one can find that a given class of plant growth substances promotes inhibits or otherwise has no effect on a specific plant process. Although there is a great deal of variation in the literature some general theories have been established and for the most part can now be applied to many situations. This is followed by methodology for extraction purification and quantification of plant growth substances in Chapter 2; chemistry biological effects and mechanism of action of plant growth substances are covered in Chapter 3. The first three chapters will provide a firm foundation on how these plant growth substances work thereby making many of their practical uses evident. In subsequent chapters the involvement of plant growth substances inseed germination seedling growth rooting dormancy juvenility maturity senescence flowering abscission fruit set fruit growth fruit development premature drop ripening promotion of fruit drop; tuberization photosynthesis and weed control will be covered. Throughout this book practical uses of plant growth substances in agriculture will be presented and when possible examples will be given showing how basic laboratory research has translated into increased production and profits to the grower. This text is designed primarily for upper-level students and will provide an excellent resource book for people entering this exciting field of research.
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