Study on quality and quantity aspects of some new Freesia cultivars in the second year of culture.

Abstract

Freesia hybrida is one of the most cultivated cut flowers worldwide. Modern technologies recommend cultivating Freesia in rotation with chrysanthemum and tomatoes, to avoid pests and diseases apparition into culture of that are the main cause of species degeneration. The greatest expenses in a Freesia culture from bulbs are made on the achievement of the bulbs but they compensate the quality and quantity of the flowers. In our research, the cultivars have been cultivated in a modern greenhouse and as we couldn’t do a rotation of crops, we prevented their apparition into culture by thermal disinfection of soil before setting the crops and pest control by preventing them with several treatments recommended in this matter. The results show that the lowest number of flower stalks was recorded by ‘Striped Sun’ cv. while ‘Troubadur’ cv. has shown a higher number of floral stalks in the second year. Other researched aspects have shown a diminution of the values to the first year. The greatest diminution of the floral stem length was recorded by ‘Algarve’ cv. while ‘Yvonne’ cv. has recorded greater values of the same character in the second year. The degeneration appeared different to the researched cultivars on the aspects mentioned in the paper, even if all had benefited of the same cultural conditions.