EFFECT OF PLANTING DATES ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND FLOWER QUALITY OF GLADIOLUS IN PAKISTAN
HAYAT KHAN
Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
FAHAD NAZIR
National Center of Industrial Biotechnology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
SHAHID NADEEM
Horticulture Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan
JUNAID KHAN
Department of Agriculture, University of Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
MUHAMMAD ZAFAR IQBAL
College of Grassland Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China.
MUHAMMAD ZAHID ASLAM
Cotton Research Station, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan.
ARSHAD HUSSAIN
Agronomic Research Station, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
MUHAMMAD AAMER
Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Lodhran 59320, Punjab, Pakistan.
SYED WAQAR HUSSAIN SHAH
Entomological Research Sub-station, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.
AZAZ KABIR
Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Crop Protection Sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan.
MANSOOR ALI
Department of Food Science and Technology, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan.
IKRAM ULLAH *
College of Landscape and Horticulture, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Gladiolus is one of the leading bulbous flowers due to the high demand of its double row spikes of different colors in domestic and international markets. Gladiolus flower quality and growth performance are largely depending on growing media, environmental condition but planting dates are considered as key factor which effect the growth indices and quality attributes of the flowers. To evaluate the effect of different sowing dates on growth and flowering of gladiolus, a study was conducted at National Agriculture Research Council Islamabad (NARC) during the year of 2017. Results revealed that sowing date of gladiolus flower significantly affect the reproductive and vegetative phase of plants. It has been observed that seed emergence and spike length was enhanced when seeds were sown at initial dates as compared to late sowing. In contrary to these, plant height and rachis length was reduced at early sowing dates but significantly increased with sowing of seeds at later dates. Overall, it has been concluded from the present study that gladiolus growth performance and flowers quality are improved when seeds were sown at earlier dates compared to late sowing.
Keywords: Cut flower, gladiolus, planting dates, vegetative and reproductive growth