Abstract
ABSTRACT Water management and meteorological conditions during the cropping phase play an essential role in maintaining the commercial quality of cut flowers. This study evaluates water requirement, sensitivity to water deficit, and commercial quality of gladiolus ‘Amsterdam’ produced with automated irrigation in different growing periods. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with five replicates and consisted of the growing period factors (winter/spring 2018 and autumn/winter 2019) and the irrigation level factors (45% - L1, 60% - L2, 80% - L3, and 100% - L4 of crop water requirement). An automatic irrigation controller was used for irrigation management. At the harvest point, we evaluated the stems for the diameter, number of flowers, spike length, and floral stem length. We also evaluated stomatal conductance, leaf area, and duration of phenological phases on degree-days. The application of 100% crop water requirement using an automatic irrigation controller in the autumn/winter cycle results in better commercial classification. The treatment with 45% of the crop water requirement extended the total duration of the cycle. In conclusion, flower stems of better commercial classification are obtained with 100% of crop water requirement during the autumn/winter cycle.
Highlights
Flower quality is of extreme importance in producing cut flowers for commercial purposes and is indicated by some visual characteristics, longevity, and commercial variables based on quality standards
These standards are established by the main cooperatives of ornamental plants and cut flowers to meet the requirements of the consumer market (Cooperativa Veiling Holambra, 2019)
Gladiolus x grandiflorus Hort. is an herbaceous and bulbous ornamental plant of significant economic value (Singab et al, 2016) and is one of the main bulbous crops cultivated for cut flowers worldwide (Casares et al, 2017)
Summary
Flower quality is of extreme importance in producing cut flowers for commercial purposes and is indicated by some visual characteristics, longevity, and commercial variables based on quality standards. These standards are established by the main cooperatives of ornamental plants and cut flowers to meet the requirements of the consumer market (Cooperativa Veiling Holambra, 2019). Gladiolus can be cultivated all year round (Barbosa, 2011); the crop has climatic requirements that must be respected, especially concerning temperature and occurrence of extreme environmental events such as frosts, which may cause the death of floret tissues, mainly when they occur during spike formation (Schwab et al, 2015b).
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