Abstract

Radiation from GSM mast is regarded as a harmless but has recently generated a lot of controversies on its bio safety. Roselle naturally has about 50 % flower bud abscission rate, however, this research work is aimed at investigating the influence of radiation from 900 MHz GSM mast on the rate of flower bud production and abscission in Hibiscus sabdariffa. The plants exposed to the mast radiation generally produced significantly lower number of flower buds per plant (ranging from 80.00±9.62 to 106.80±8.17) than the control plants (107.80±15.21). Exceptions were found in locations A 100 m, 400 m and location B 100 m where the values were slightly higher (129.20±34.97, 138.40±19.50 and 118.80±15.80 buds / plant respectively). Abscission in control plants was 55.6 % per plant while in the exposed plants, a range of 40.33 to 48.21 % were obtained. Weak correlations exist between EMF intensities and abscission rate. The significant (p ? 0.05) reductions obtained in flower bud abscission in Hibiscus sabdariffa due to radiation from the GSM mast creates ecological stability for the plant whereby it enhances fruit formation and therefore increases the yield of the plant. If properly harnessed the radiation may play useful roles in the generation of variability and also in plant improvement.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.