Performance of gladiolus cultivars under the coastal tropical humid climatic conditions of Andhra Pradesh

The present investigation was carried out using nine hybrid cultivars of gladiolus in a randomized block design with three replications. Cultivars used in the present investigation were ‘American Beauty’, ‘Arun’, ‘Darshan’, ‘Green Star’, ‘Limoncello’, ‘Meridiana’, ‘Pink Lady’, ‘White Prosperity’ and ‘Dhiraj’ as a check cultivar. The analyzed data has revealed that plant height (125.60 cm) and leaf area (1189.00 cm2 per plant) were found significantly highest with ‘White Prosperity’ when compared with other hybrid cultivars. Number of leaves produced per plant was found significantly highest with ‘Green Star’ (9.30) and was found at par with ‘White Prosperity’ (9.20). Among the floral parameters evaluated ‘Limoncello’ recorded significantly lowest number of days required for appearance of floral spikes (51.55 days), whereas ‘Meridiana’ recorded significantly highest number days taken for appearance of floral spikes (70.43 days). Cultivar ‘White Prosperity’ recorded significantly highest spike length (106.33 cm), rachis length (45.43 cm), highest number of florets per spike (13.40), highest floret length (1.10 cm), number of floral spikes per plant (2.07), number of spikes per plot (49.63), number of spikes per hectare (1.66 lakhs) with highest vase life (10.13 days). Further, cv. ‘White Prosperity’ recorded significantly highest corm weight per plant (101.33 g) and corm diameter (5.77 cm).