Different Corm Sizes Affect Performance of Gladiolus grandiflorus cvs. Red Majesty and Early Yellow

Vegetative reproductive and corm characteristics of Gladiolus grandiflorus as affected by different corm sizes, large sized corm (3 to 3.5 cm), medium (2 to 2.5 cm) and to small (1 to 1.5 cm) were evaluated under natural agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad. The experiment was laid out in accordance with Complete Block Design with two factorial arrangements. Regarding vegetative parameters it was observed that sprouting percentage, plant height, number of leaves per plant and days required for 25% flowers, large sized corm perfume the best as compared to medium and small sized corms with maximum values (96.67%), (56.02 cm) and (7.720) in variety red majesty (150.0 days) in variety Early Yellow respectively. Similar results were observed with reproductive characters, similar number of spikes per plant in both varieties in all corm sizes maximum thickness (1.023 cm) of spike was observed in cvs. Early Yellow when large sized corms, spikes of maximum length in both cultivars being 47.55 cm and 47.50 cm in cv. Red Majesty and 45.56 and 43.11 cm in cvs. Early Yellow respectively, a significant difference was also in observed in number of florets per spike and intact flower life. In case of corm characters more number of cormels per plant was produced by plants raised by corms of large sized and corms size was increased with increase corm size