Performance of gladiolus genotypes for cut flower and corm production under high altitude of Uttarakhand

An experiment was carried out during summer season of 2006–2008 at the experimental farm of CITH-RS, Mukteshwar (Uttarakhand) to evaluate the performance of 37 gladiolus cultivars for cut flower and corm production. The vegetative, flowering and corm and cormel characters showed significant differences among the cultivars under study. Cultivar Chantiler gave maximum plant height (147.33 cm), leaf length (60.00 cm) and leaf breadth (3.06 cm) while cultivar Novalux (62.33 and 69.33 days), Super Star (66.00and 73.67 days) and Red Beauty(69.00 and 76.33 days), Pusa Gunjan (70.33 and 77 days) and Pusa Shabnam (70.67 and 77.67 days) were found earliest for spike initiation and first floret showing colour, respectively. The longest spike was recorded in Pusa Jyotsana (88.67 cm), Novalux (88.33 cm), High Style (88.33 cm), Chantiler (86.33 cm), Pusa Dhanvantari (81.67 cm), Pusa Shabnam (80.33 cm), Summer Rose (83.33 cm) and Pusa Archana (83.33 cm) while the longest rachis was recorded in Chantiler (63.00 cm). Cultivar Pusa Jyotsana and Pusa Swarnima recorded maximum number of florets/spike (20.33). Significantly maximum corm equatorial diameter (6.14 cm), corm polar diameter (2.65 cm), corm weight (55.51g) and propagation co-efficient (330.90%) were observed in Legend and Chantiler. Looking into the performance of different cultivars, Pusa Jyotsana, Chantiler, Summer Rose, Pusa Shabnam, Novalux, High Style, Red Beauty and Snow Princess can be recommended for commercial cut flower production under higher hills of Uttarakhand while Chantiler, Legend and Sylvia could be taken up for quality corm and cormel production.