Journal of Experimental Agriculture International

Gladiolus is an important cut flower crop, grown commercially in many parts of the globe. This flower has gained popularity owing to its incomparable beauty, attractive colours, various sizes and shapes of florets, variable spike length and long vase life. Gladiolus produces beautiful spikes from December to March in the plains and from June to September in the hills of India.Gladiolus is very rich in its varietal wealth therefore, varietal evaluation in a particular growing condition becomes necessity of time to find out suitable variety for a particular region. Improvement of any crop is a continuous process and long process as well and, in this crop, tremendous scope is available to improve the existing cultivars, besides, other economical plants, the growth and development of gladiolus is governed by its genetic makeup and environmental factors of the growing region and various management practices. Among the various agro-techniques, the optimum planting time is of outmost importance. The Present investigation efforts aim to standard time of planting and suitability of varieties for local climate and edaphic conditions of the Nalanda (Bihar). A field investigation was conducted during winter season of 2018-19 at Research Farm of Nalanda College of Horticulture, Noorsarai, Nalanda, Bihar. Corms of gladiolus cultivars viz., Red Beauty, Candyman, White Prosperity and Intrepid were planted at different planting dates. The soils of experimental site are newly formed alluvial soils with pH 7.40. The experiment consisted of 16 treatment combinations with four (04) varieties and four planting dates (D₁- 25^th Sept., D₂- 10^th October and D₃- 25^th Oct. and D₄-10^th Nov.) were laid out in split-plot-design with three replications. Minimum days to sprouting of corm (16.33 days), number of leaves per plant (11.27), length of leaves (86.87cm.) were with D₂V₂. However, maximum plant height (146.07 cm.) was in D₂V₁. Minimum days to initiation of spike (80.47 days), days taken to open first floret (95.07 days) and maximum length of spike (126.07cm.) were observed in D₂V₁. On the other hand, maximum numbers of florets per spike (21.20), fresh weight of flower spike (170.25 gm.), floret diameter (11.17cm.) and vase life (14.80 days) were in D₂V₃. Highest values for no. of corms per plant (1.40) and no. of cormels per plant (111.53) were noticed in D₂V₃.  Besides, corm diameter (7.53 cm) and average weight of corm per plant (123.08 gm.) were found maximum in D₂V₁.