Performance of Exotic Gladiolus Cultivars under Various Irrigation Regimes

Abstract

Gladiolus (Gladiolus L. hybrids) is a bulbous cut flower, which produces charming spikes on elongated stems. A study was conducted to evaluate the performance of various exotic gladiolus cultivars, viz. ‘Bangladesh’, ‘Essential’, ‘Nova Zambla’ and ‘White Prosperity’ under various irrigation regimes during 2017-2018. Corms were imported from Stoop Flower Bulbs, Holland, transported to laboratory from cold store, and acclimatized at ambient temperature for a week before sowing. Experiment was set up in a polyhouse in plastic crates according to completely randomized design with three replications each having 18 corms planted in a crate. Five irrigation regimes, viz. 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 days interval, were adopted for all the cultivars under study. Irrigation water was applied until saturation of the soil. Results depicted that gladiolus cultivars ‘Essential’ and ‘Nova Zambla’ produced early flowering with greater stem length, stem fresh and dry weights, leaf area, spike length and number of florets. Best quality flowers were obtained when plants were irrigated at 10 days interval, followed by 15 and 20 days interval, while poor quality stems were produced when plants were irrigated at 5 or 25 days interval, which was either over or under irrigation, respectively. In conclusion, gladiolus cultivars grown at 10 and 15 days irrigation intervals from December to March produced best quality stems and irrigation at 10-15 days interval can be considered as optimal for gladiolus production.