Research Article
Introduction and Evaluation of Exotic Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandifilorus) Cultivars
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Zarqa Akbar
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Nazia Kosar
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Zahida Aslam Khan
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Introduction
Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus) is an ornamental bulbous plant native to South Africa, known as Sward lily belongs to monocot family Iridadceae, having approximately one hundred and fifty known species (Negi et al., 1982). It has its natural habitat in the Mediterranean regions and South Africa. In subcontinent, Gladiolus cultivation gets back the nineteenth century, when it was confined to temperate regions (Jhon et al., 1996). Gladiolus is one of the most important bulbous cut flowers in the flower industry. It occupies the fifth position in the international floriculture trade. It has great economic value as a cut flower and for decoration and known as queen amongst the bulbous flower. The demand of cut flower increases day by day (Sharma and Sharga, 1988).
Lal et al. (1984) reported that Bon voyage sport and Apple bloom were earliest. It has been observed that Hybird 77-59-32 was promising for spike length, florets and number of spike (Negi and Raghava, 1984).
Rao and Janakiram (1991), evaluated various cultivars and recommended 82-7-2, 82-11-90 and 82-18-109 for cultivation. Sharma and Sharga (1988) observed that cultivars, Aidebaran, Biglime supreme, Deciso, Copper king and Tunias classic were superior for vegetative and reproductive characteristics. Pant et al. (1987) reported that cultivars Apple blossom, Friendship and Oscar were superior for floral characteristics. Bahar and KorKut (1998) found that cultivars Power puff, Red majesty, Nova lux and Victor broge were promising for cormlet characteristics.
Safiullah and Ahmed (2000) evaluated ten exotic cultivars of Gladiolus and recommended Nova Lux, Rose Delight, Deciso, Trader Horn and Mary Housley for general cultivation.
Climatic conditions of Pakistan allow Gladiolus cultivation throughout the year in various parts. There is a great scope of gladiolus export as a cut flower to the Middle East and Gulf countries.
Keeping in view the economical importance of Gladiolus, exotic cultivars were evaluated for their performance to boost up flower industry in the country.
These studies were carried out at University College of Agriculture, Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir, during 2000. Ten exotic cultivars of Gladiolus namely, Wine and Roges, Wings sensation, Red beauty, Oscar, Praha, City light, Green wood packer, Blue Isle, Priscilla and Victor borge were collected from Awan Nursery and Seed Store Rawalpindi which were imported from Netherlands.
The experiment was laid out according to randomized complete block design (RCBD). There were 30 plots, 3 plots were randomly allocated to each cultivar. Before planting soil was prepared uniformly by adding F.Y.M. 1 kg m-2 and commercial fertilizers of S.S.P, murate of potash and nitrophosphate 100 g m-2.
Data were collected on days to sprouting, number of plants per corm, plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, days to spike emergence, number of flower per plant, spike length, number of florets per spike, field life of spike, number of corm per plant, diameter of corm and weight of corm.
Data collected were statistically analysed and results exhibiting significant differences were subjected to DMR test for comparison of their means (Steel and Torrie, 1981).
Results and Discussion
Vegetative characteristics: Results (Table 1) for days to spouting showed that Wine and Roges sprouted earlier after 19.5 days of sowing whereas Victor broge was too late and took 29.8 days for sprouting. City light and Wings sensation also took more days (27.4) and (26.0) respectively for sprouting. More plant (2.12) per corm were obtained for Red beauty. Oscar, Blue Isle, Wine and roges, showed superiority with more leaves per plant, i.e., 9.9, 9.6 and 9.5 respectively. For plant height superiority was shown by Oscar (101.05 cm) followed by Blue Isle (97.5 cm) and Praha (94.05 cm). Minimum plant height (70.45 cm) was obtained by Red beauty.
Different cultivars showed variable responses for vegetative characteristics. Cultivars under study were given same soil and climatic conditions but variations were there. This might be due to their genetic composition, which interact differently to the soil and climatic conditions of this area. Safiullah and Ahmed (2001) also confirmed these results. They observed variation in vegetative and floral characteristics for Gladiolus cultivars.
Floral characteristics: Number of days to spike emergence showed that Blue Isle took more days (73.8) to spike emergence followed by Oscar (Table 2). Maximum days to flowering were taken by Blue Isle (95) and Oscar (93.5). Whereas, minimum days (53.3) were exhibited by Wing ,sensation. Maximum spike length (64.4 cm) was recorded for Blue Isle whereas minimum (37 cm) was obtained by Red beauty. More spike per plant (1.5) were recorded for Red beauty. Maximum floret (16.45) were produced by City light, whereas minimum (11.55) were observed for Red beauty. Victor broge remained attractive for longer period and obtained spike life of 37.75 days, while shorter spike life (19.7 days) was recorded for par hacter.
One can observe variations among floral characteristics for different cultivars. These variations among floral characteristics of the Gladiolus cultivars have been observed by Lal et al. (1982). They observed that among 47 cultivars Ban voyage sport and Apple bloom were earliest to flowering.
Negi et al. (1982) observed variation in floral characteristics of four Indian Gladiolus hybrids. The hybrid produced longest and marketable spikes.
Table 1: | Vegetative characteristic of Gladiolus cultivars |
Table 2: | Floral characteristics for Gladiolus cultivars |
Table 3: | Corm and cormal characteristics of Gladiolus cultivars |
Means shearing same letters are not significant at P > 0.05 |
Mahnata and Pagwan (1994) compared various cultivars and observed highly significant differences among the cultivars for floral characteristics. Cultivars Copper king and Tunias classic were superior for reproductive characteristics. These results are also confirmed by Pant et al. (1987) during comparison of Gladiolus cultivars.
Corm and cormal characteristics: Maximum diameter (5.51 cm) of corm for Wine and roges whereas minimum diameter (4.23 cm) was exhibited by Victor broge (Table 3). Wine and roges obtained maximum weight of corm (53.06 g). Maximum diameter of Wings sensation obtained minimum diameter of cormlet (0.69 cm). Maximum weight of cormlet (0.59 g) was recorded for Praha, whereas minimum weight (0.14 g) was produced by Bule Isle.
Close observation of the corm and cormlet characteristics showed variable responses for the cultivars under study. Different cultivars responded or interact differently with given soil and climatic conditions depending upon their genetic composition.
Jhon et al. (1996) observed that out of 41 Gladiolus cultivars White prosperity, Puff beauty and King lear produced larger size corms and cormlets than other cultivars. Largest corm and cormlets production was observed for the cultivars Yellow stone and Hunting sorg (Patil et al., 1994).
Mahanta and Paswan (1994) compared 10 cultivars and observed highly significant differences among the cultivars for corm and cormal characteristics. Cultivars Copper King and Tunias classic were superior for corm production.
The area found suitable for Gladiolus cultivation. Among the cultivars under study, Praha, Green wood packer, Prisicilla, Oscar and Wings sensation were failed to thrive well in this area. Keeping in view the spike length, number of plant/corm, number of spike/plant, field life of spike, corm and cormal production. Blue Isle, City light, Red beauty, Victor borge, Wine and Roges are recommended for general cultivation.