Response of Gladiolus varieties to different planting dates

Abstract

Experiment was conducted to study the effect of seven different planting dates from the month of August to November using four different varieties of Gladiolus viz., Chandni, Big Time Supreme, White Prosperity and Snow Princess, for vegetative and floral parameters. In the vegetative parameters studied variety White Prosperity recorded the highest plant height (128.84 cm), highest number of leaves (9.03) and number of tillers (1.47) during September planting date. Whereas lowest plant height (87.64 cm) was recorded in the variety Chandni during September planting only. The vegetative parameters studied were also dependent on genotype and also interaction between variety and environment. November planting time showed good number of florets (16.06) and also floret diameter (9.42 cm) which was followed by September and October planting dates. Variety White Prosperity produced more number of florets per spike (22.72) in November and floret diameter (11.85 cm) in October planting. For floret parameters there was no significant difference on effect of date of planting and this was mainly due to genotypic characteristic of individual varieties studied. Better spike parameter attributed to the prevalence of favorable environment conditions during October planting time. Among the varieties studied White Prosperity showed highest spike length (105.62 cm) at first floret opening and 107.39 cm during last floret opening. The highest rachis length was also recorded by variety White Prosperity (54.00 cm) at first floret opening and 57.41 cm at last floret opening. October planting was found superior for Spike and rachis length in four different varieties studied.