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Effect of Nitrogen and Potash on the Yield and Quality of Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L) Flower

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: IntroductionG ladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorous L) belongs to family iridaceae.It bears leaves which resemble sword, thus it was called gladiolus, meaning a sword in Latin Language.Commonly it is known as swordlilly (Khanam and Patra, 2015).Though, it was domesticated in 16th century, however, cultivated later in the 19th century in the Subcontinent (Rajput, 2003).A significant part in horticulture is contributed by cut flowers industry.Maintaining quality of cut flowers for long time in florist shop, is considered very important in floriculture markets.Ethylene and micro-organisms are the key factors leading to senescence of flowers and ultimately adversely affecting shelf life of flowers (Zencirkiran, 2005).Floriculture is an emerging industry in Pakistan and can improve economic status of small farmers.Each year 10000-12000 tons cut flowers are produced on national level.However, its demand is more than its production (Rehman, 2004).Roses are ranked on top Abstract | Gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus L) is a key crop in floriculture industry used for cut flowers in interior decoration.Fertilizers have prominent role in quality flower production.To investigate the performance of gladiolus at different application rate of nitrogen and potash, a study was conducted at National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) Islamabad, in May to August 2018.The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 10 treatment combinations of nitrogen (0, 100, 200, 400 kg ha -1 ), Potash (0, 100, 200, 400 kg ha -1 ) and other combinations (200N + 100K kg ha -1 , 100N + 200K kg ha -1 and 400N + 400K kg ha -1 ) with four replications.There were 10 plants in each replication.The highest number of florets per spike (11.42) were obtained at treatment combination of nitrogen and potash (100N +200K kg/ha) where other parameters of plant height, number of leaves, leaf length and spike length were at par with their respective maximum results.However, the lengthiest spike (88.10cm) was produced at 100kg/ha nitrogen.Similarly, the application of nitrogen at the rate of 200 kg/ha produced tallest (110.95cm)plants with maximum (9.37) number of leaves and lengthiest (55.75cm) leaves.It can be concluded that application of nitrogen and potash at the rate of 100 kg ha -1 and 200 kg ha -1 should be applied for better yield and quality of flowers of gladiolus.

Source: Sarhad Journal of Agriculture

DOI: 10.17582/journal.sja/2020/36.2.397.401