*2.3. Data Collection and Statistical Analysis*

The dry mass, number of leaves per plant, number of nodes per plant, number of flowers per plant, plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll content, percent flowering, days of treatment needed to visible flower bud or days to visible buds (DVB), flower width, and photoreceptor gene expressions were measured after 41 days of the photoperiodic light treatments. All leaves with a length greater than 1 cm in were counted to determine the number of leaves per plant. Divided samples of the shoot and root were dried at 70 ◦C for 72 h in a Venticell-222 drying oven (MMM Medcenter Einrichtungen GmbH., Munich, Germany) before the dry mass measurements were taken with an EW 220-3NM electronic scale (Kern and Sohn GmbH., Balingen, Germany). Leaf area measurements were taken with a LI-3000 leaf area meter (LI-COR Inc., Lincoln, NE, USA). The chlorophyll concentration was estimated from 10-mg samples of fresh, young, and fully developed leaves. Chlorophyll was extracted with 80% acetone at 4 ◦C. A Biochrom Libra S22 spectrophotometer (Biochrom Co. Ltd., Holliston, MA, USA) measured the absorbance of the supernatant at 645 and 663 nm, after the extracted chlorophyll was centrifuged at 3000 rpm. Calculations were performed according to the method described by Dere et al. [23]. The statistical analysis was performed with the SAS 9.1 software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's multiple range test were performed with the results of this study. SigmaPlot 12.0 (Systat Software Inc., San Jose, CA, USA) was used for graphing.
